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RETAIL SELLING AND 
STORE MANAGEMENT 


Prepared in the 
Extension Division of 
The University of Wisconsin 


By 


PAUL H. NYSTROM, Ph. D. 


ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 


SCRANTON 

INTERNATIONAL TEXTBOOK COMPANY 



Copyright, 1913, by The Extension Division of The University of 

Wisconsin. 

Copyright, 1914, by D. Appleton and Company. 

Copyright, 1924, by International Textbook Company. Copyright in Great 

Britain. All rights reserved. 


Printed in U. S. A. 



Press of 

International Textbook Company 
Scranton, Pa. 

1001 


NOV 15 *24 


80/90 





PREFACE 


In recent years there has been a notable improvement in 
retail merchandising practices. Progressive merchants have 
felt the need of developing better methods in every depart¬ 
ment of their business, in order to hold their own against 
the competition of mail-order houses, house-to-house sales¬ 
men, and chain stores. In this volume the aim of the author 
is to review the basic principles and practices that are the 
foundation of modern retail selling. He discusses the prin¬ 
cipal activities of a typical retail establishment and shows 
how the problems of the retailer can be solved by the appli¬ 
cation of modern methods. 

Careful analysis of retail methods has shown that among 
the factors that determine the success or failure of a store 
the service rendered by the salesperson is most important, 
and for this reason the topic of personal selling has been 
treated in considerable detail. 

Other activities of an executive nature are discussed quite 
fully, because knowledge of these activities is essential for 
those employes who seek to advance themselves. For illus¬ 
trations of practical methods, all possible sources have been 
drawn upon—trade periodicals, successful stores, and the 
author’s own experience and observation. The purpose has 
been to gather the experience of many men in retailing and 
arrange this material in such a way that it can be studied by 
others and used by them in their daily work. 

International Textbook Company 



1001 



CONTENTS 


PART 1—FUNDAMENTAL FACTORS IN RETAIL 

SELLING 


Chapter 1 Pages 

Introduction to Retail Selling. 1- 10 


Place of retailing in production; Problems of the 
retailer; Problems of the untrained salesman; Factors 
of selling. 

Chapter 2 

The Salesman . 11- 24 

Importance of the salesman; Born vs. trained sales¬ 
men; Health; Rules of right living; How to increase 
your education. 

Chapter 3 

Knowledge as an Asset in Selling. 25- 32 

Technical knowledge; Knowledge of the goods; How 
to learn the goods; Knowledge of the house; Knowl¬ 
edge of people; Psychology in business. 

Chapter 4 

The Psychology of Selling. 33- 42 

Definition and use of psychology; Roads to the brain; 

How to improve memory; Flights and stops of the 
mind. 


PART 2—THE SALES PROCESS 

Chapter 5 

How Instincts Aid in Selling. 43-54 

Instincts the bases of sameness; What instincts are; 

Hnbit; Imagination; Reasoning. 


Chapter 6 


Attracting Attention . 55- 70 

The Salesman’s service; The conduct of a sale; The 
customer’s state of mind; Getting the customer’s 
attention; Interest; Increasing interest; Desire and 
action; The steps in a sale; What customers do not 
like; The salesman’s approach; Forms of address. 


v 








VI 


CONTENTS 


PART 2—THE SALES PROCESS— {Continued) 


Chapter 7 Pages 

Arousing Interest, Desire, and Determination.71- 80 


Getting customers interested; Get customer to say 
“yes”; Anticipate objections; Fixing the attention; 

Patience with customers. 

Chapter 8 

Closing the Sale. 81- 94 

The close of, the sale an act of will; How people 
decide; Suggestion vs. “Reason why”; Power of sug¬ 
gestion ; Practical use of suggestion; The purpose of 
decision; Ideas appealing to instincts are strongest; 

The psychological moment for the close; Managing 
the close of the sale. 


PART 3—SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN RETAIL 
SELLING 

Chapter 9 

Special Problems in Retail Salesmanship. 95-105 

Difference in selling ability ; Personality of the sales¬ 
man; Personality in selling; Tact; Enthusiasm; 

Manner of speaking; Service to customers; Service 
to employer. 


Chapter 10 

Leaks and Losses in Retail Stores. 106-117 

Retail store leaks; Fire; Stealing; Over-measure¬ 
ment ; Poor care of merchandise; Poor packing; 

Waste of supplies; Unsalable stock; Waste of light; 

Leaky packages; Vermin; Losses due to delivery 
department; Salesmen’s errors; Sales that do not 
stick; Customers who do not come back. 

Chapter 11 

Window Display and Other Aids in Selling. 118-138 

Helps for the salesman; Importance of manner of 
selling: The application of psychology; Art in busi¬ 
ness ; Effective display and store helps; The store’s 
location; The store exterior; The window; Purpose 
of window display; Attracting attention; What con¬ 
stitutes good display; The entrance; Arrangement 
of departments; Interior appearance; Show-cards; 

Other aids to selling. 







CONTENTS vii 

PART 4—STORE ORGANIZATION 

Chapter 12 Pages 

Relation of the Salesman to His Employer and to 
the Public .139-147 

The salesman a representative of his house; The 
salesman’s services to his employer; Cooperation; 

Store rules; How to improve in salesmanship. 


Chapter 13 

Efficiency and Store Organization .148-166 

Scientific management in retailing; Analysis of a 
retail store; Retail store organization; Duties of each 
department; Store conferences; General inspirational 
meetings. 

Chapter 14 

Standards of Efficiency in a Retail Store.167-183 

Standards in business; Standards of construction; 

Floor; Stairways; Fixtures; Heat; Light; Air; 
Cleaning; Standards for salesmen; Store service to 
employes to improve selling; Education for efficiency. 

Chapter 15 

Store Policy .184-202 

Importance of store policy; Sell at fair “profit”; 

One price to all; Meeting competition; Business cour¬ 
tesy; Telephony courtesy; Another class to reach; 

General store service; Delivery service. 


PART 5—BUYING AND FIGURING COST OF 
SELLING 

Chapter 16 

The Cost of Selling.203-223 

How profits are computed; How to take inventory; 
the turnover; The expenses of selling; Compute 
profits and expenses on sales; Selling price not based 
alone on costs of selling. 

Chapter 17 

Buying for a Retail Store.224-240 

Where to buy; Method of buying; Buy little and buy 
often; The buyer’s qualifications; Buyer’s knowledge; 

How much to buy; Stock up-keep; Slow-moving 
goods; Treatment of traveling salesmen; Pricing the 
goods. 








CONTENTS 

PART 6—ADVERTISING, CREDITS, AND 
COLLECTIONS 


Chapter 18 Pages 

Retail Advertising .241-252 


Kinds of retail advertising; When to advertise; Ad¬ 
vertising mediums; Requisites for good advertising; 

Art in advertising; Getting the information; Prepa¬ 
ration of copy; Store cooperation. 

Chapter 19 

Retail Credits and Collections.253-265 

Is retail credit necessary? Credit a cause of reckless¬ 
ness ; Credit makes good customers; Essentials of 
successful credit business; Classes that may receive 
credit; Who should not receive credit; The credit 
man’s problems; The work of the credit man; Getting 
credit information from customer; What the credit 
man should know about his risks; Credit records. 

Chapter 20 

Relation of the Store to its Salespeople and to the 

Public ....266-280 

Relation to employes; What should determine salary; 
Premiums; Profit-sharing; Selling goods to sales¬ 
men ; Promotion; Every manager should have an 
under-study; Salesmen’s suggestions; Welfare work; 
Education of salespeople; Store conferences; The 
trade papers. 





RETAIL SELLING AND 
STORE MANAGEMENT 






























































































RETAIL SELLING AND STORE 
MANAGEMENT 


CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION TO RETAIL SELLING 

Production. —To supply the wants of people there has 
been built up a great system of industry and commerce. 
The average family draws its foods, its clothing, and other 
needs from all parts of the earth. From producer to con¬ 
sumer there is in most cases an intricate series of trans¬ 
formations and exchanges. There is first the production of 
the raw' material by the laborers who work next to the soil, 
from which all material things originally come. Then there 
is the transportation to the factories, and the manufacturing 
that changes the form of the raw product to something suit¬ 
able to human use After manufacture the goods are 
usually transported again to large dealers who purchase in 
large amounts and distribute in wholesale lots to the smaller 
dealers. Finally, the goods reach the consumers. This 
great system of industry and commerce is called economic 
production. 

Place of retailing in production. —The business of retail 
selling is the final link in this great chain extending from 
producer to consumer. To show its relation to the whole 
system of production and commercial distribution, we may 
follow the processes of an article from its beginnings to its 
ultimate uses. (See Plate I.) In the production of an or¬ 
dinary piece of calico there are, as indicated in the chart, 
more than twenty-five steps. There are often many more. 
The chart shows a simplified condition. It will be seen that 


I 


»-d 

H 

ft 



J 


Cotton Production 



























































INTRODUCTION TO RETAIL SELLING 

a piece of cotton goods must pass through a great number of 
hands, must travel over long distances, must be worked by 
machinery requiring much capital for its purchase and op¬ 
eration, and must be subjected to many processes that have 
scientific bases in physics, chemistry, etc. What is true for 
a piece of cotton goods is true in a similar manner for almost 
every other article bought and sold for the use of man. 

What business is for. —Wherever goods change hands 
from one owner to another, there buying and selling take 
place. It is at these points that the profits are determined; 
and in profits we shall find one of the main motives of 
present day enterprise. The possibility of profits brings 
about investments in the various links of the chain; and, 
when profits cease, the units decrease in number or one 
link disappears entirely. 

As a whole, this great industrial and commercial system 
depends for its existence upon the demands of the people, 
and therefore it is a social institution. The individual unit, 
be it farming, mining, manufacturing, wholesaling, or re¬ 
tailing, depends for its success upon how well it fits into the 
great system, and how well it serves its immediate com¬ 
munity of customers. The unsuccessful store or factory is 
one which is not located advantageously with reference to 
its markets, or one which adopts a policy at variance with 
the tendencies in the entire system, or which does not serve 
its customers in the way that they want to be served. So¬ 
ciety notifies such a unit that it is on the wrong road by 
cutting down its custom and thereby cutting down its profits. 

Attempts to thwart this scheme or natural order may 
thrive for a while, but in the long run the people, for whom 
this whole system of distribution exists, will eliminate the 
combination which holds price much above the costs of pro¬ 
duction and handling; will break the monopoly controlling 
any needed commodity; will in some cases find a substitute 
article leaving the monopoly with no income; will cease to 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 

trade with the merchant whose advertising or goods are dis¬ 
honest; and will buy as little as possible from the salesman 
who does not treat his customers humanly or who does not 
serve them as they want to be served. 

Wrong ideas in business. —There is a great deal of mis¬ 
conception in the minds of many salesmen, even merchants 
themselves, concerning the social function of selling. It 
seems to be easy to forget the dependence of the individual 
business upon the public. Such avowed policies as “get all 
you can,” “charging all the traffic will bear,” etc., are wrong 
both in principle and in practice. As the public becomes 
better and better educated and observant of its interests, 
indirectly as well as directly, the policy of caveat emptor 
(let the buyer beware) becomes more and more a thing of 
the past. Still there are too many business men who think 
in terms of the policies of the past, and this may be proved 
by the commonness of such expressive and significant busi¬ 
ness slang as the following phrases: 

“Put it over.” 

“Lead ’em to it.” 

“Made ’em eat out of my hand.” 

“I gave him the hook all right.” 

“They were regular boobs.” 

“We certainly handed him one.” 

“Just like taking candy from a child.” 

“Easy money.” 

“He took hook, bait, and all.” 

Business men who use these expressions and really think as 
they speak are bidding for uncertain immediate success and 
certain ultimate failure. It must never be forgotten that 
business is intended to serve the people and that the people 
are not to serve business. 

Who is boss. —In the Jordan Marsh Company’s school of 
salesmanship in Boston the relation of the store to the public 
is made clear by Superintendent Hawkins in the following 


4 


INTRODUCTION TO RETAIL SELLING 


manner. At the close of each term or course he goes before 
his class. Let him tell in his own words what he says and 
does: 

“ ‘As you are about to enter the employ of the Jordan 
Marsh Company, there is one very important thing that you 
should know; and that is, who is the boss in this store ? 
Now who is the boss?’ I ask, pointing to some eager student. 
The answer usually comes back, ‘Why, you are.’ I reply 
with emphasis, ‘Oh, no; I’m not the boss.’ Again I ask, 
‘Now, who is the real boss in this store?’ All are intensely 
interested now. Positive voices in chorus now proclaim a 
member of the firm to be the real boss. I say again, ‘Oh, 
no. He is not the boss. The boss in this store is the cus¬ 
tomer. It’s for customers that you and I are working. It’s 
the customer that you and I are here to please. It’s the 
customer who pays your wages and mine. If it were not for 
the customer, you and I would be looking for a job, and 
we might not get as good a one as we have here. Now, if 
you are sitting behind your counter, doing nothing, and see 
me coming, don’t jump; but if you see the customer, the 
boss, coming, jump!’ ” 

Mr. Hawkins says that this line of argument always makes 
a strong impression, and it strikes the keynote of good sales¬ 
manship ; namely, satisfactory service to customers. 

Literature of retailing. —It is somewhat surprising that 
so little scientific attention has been given to the retail busi¬ 
ness in the past. Agriculture has become almost an exact 
science, and the engineer and economist have advanced min¬ 
ing, manufacturing, and transportation to well-defined stand¬ 
ards. But the retail business, which now employs the time 
and energy of nearly a million people in this country alone, 
has been passed over in the standard works on economics 
with but brief mention. In a similar way the art of selling 
and other arts of the retail business, including advertising, 
window-trimming, stock-keeping, etc., have until recently 


5 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


received but little attention from writers. This condition 
bids fair to be changed very rapidly now. A flood of litera¬ 
ture is appearing on every conceivable phase of the business. 

Reasons for interest in retailing. —There is a reason for 
this enlarged present interest in the retail business. This 
country has just entered a new era which at present finds 
its principal expression in the watchword of efficiency. The 
era of extensive exploitation has just passed. Henceforth 
resources of all kinds must be conserved, capital invested 
more carefully, labor more efficiently done. Scientific man¬ 
agement is being introduced into the industrial field, and the 
essence of scientific management is elimination of wastes 
in the cost of production. The hero of this period is the one 
who can “make two blades of grass grow where only one 
grew before”; and the essence of good salesmanship is to 
make two sales where only one was made before. It is only 
natural that this tendency should appear in the retail field, 
and that men should seek to apply to retail selling some of 
the principles which are working so successfully in other 
fields. 

Problems of the retailer. —There is another reason for* 
this study of retailing, and that is the growth of a number 
of special problems into such dimensions as to compel at¬ 
tention. All middlemen are facing a very real problem 
in the competition among themselves, competition with mail¬ 
order houses, and competition with the various “direct to 
consumer” movements introduced here and there by pro¬ 
ducers. The rising prices of the last two decades, due to the 
increased cost of raw materials, have added to the difficulty. 
In many cases, it has been difficult to shift the entire increase 
upon the consumer; hence the scale of net profits has had a 
tendency to fall all along the line. Changes in the character 
of trade, the increased demands of the public for greater 
varieties and increased service, the prevalence of fashion, 
fad, and craze, make the dealer’s position one that requires 


6 


INTRODUCTION TO RETAIL SELLING 

the exercise of the keenest faculties and the most advanced 
knowledge. 

Problem of the untrained salesman. —There is another 
factor in the retailer’s problem in this country, and that is 
the lack of highly trained salesmen. This is a condition 
for which no one in particular is at fault, but which de¬ 
mands a remedy. The need for trained salesmen was not 
keenly felt in the past when the small store was the rule, 
and when the proprietor was the chief salesman. The 
problem of selling did not exist. If a salesman were not 
skilled in selling, neither was the salesman in the competi¬ 
tor’s store; so it made no difference. Besides, under the 
supervision of his employer, the salesman frequently gained 
indirectly a very fair education in salesmanship in practice. 
In the modern store—large, departmentized, mechanical— 
the supervision that educates in many cases has been lost. 
The chief has retired behind glass doors. The inspiration 
of example is often wanting. 

Apprenticeship in Europe. —In Europe the problem of 
training salesmen has been met very generally by an effective 
apprenticeship system. The boy desiring to become a sales¬ 
man goes to work for a merchant for a period of three or 
four years, the merchant agreeing to train him carefully. 
During this time the boy receives no salary; on the contrary 
parents sometimes pay considerable sums of money to the 
merchant for the opportunity of putting the boy in his store. 
At the end of the period of apprenticeship the young man 
comes out ready for work, with a thorough knowledge of his 
line, an adept at selling. 

Probable solution. —In this country it is not likely that 
apprenticeship will solve the problem. Such a plan would 
be satisfactory neither to the merchant nor to our young 
people. Judging from present tendencies, it seems safe to 
say that the solution will come through the public school 
system. Salesmen will be recruited from the ranks of grad- 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


uates of high school and college courses in commerce, and 
salesmanship will be taught in a manner similar to the pres¬ 
ent teaching of other vocations in industrial schools. The 
motives, ideals, and general principles of retailing must be 
learned in educational institutions. The art or the practice 
must be gained, as before, in actual selling. 

Aim of business is profit. —Th*e aim of the man who in¬ 
vests in a retail store is to get therefrom a financial return 
which is called profit. This return is to the merchant what 
wages are to the laborer, and what salary is to the office¬ 
holder. It is, in fact, his wages, though not regularly paid 
on a basis of so much per week or month. The amount of 
this profit depends upon a number of conditions, chief among 
which is the merchant’s wisdom in choosing a right loca¬ 
tion and in offering the right kind of goods to the buying 
.public, his skill in attracting the attention of that public to 
his goods and in arousing the public’s interest in them, and 
his ability to select and train skillful salesmen and to obtain 
their best efforts in his behalf. 

Store must sell goods. —In order to get profit, the store 
must sell goods. That is its chief function. Whatever else 
it may do is but preliminary to selling. All of the expense 
in buying, all of the careful planning and work in the decora¬ 
tion of windows and store, all of the expense for printer’s 
ink, all of the salaries paid to employes, all of the conve¬ 
niences provided for the use of store visitors, have but one 
purpose and that is to make easy, and assist in, the sale 
of goods. 

Must seek new and hold old customers. —To increase 
the sale of goods, the store must seek, not only to increase 
the number of new customers, but to hold its old customers 
as well. Both of these aims can be accomplished only by 
rendering complete satisfaction. The store must have the 
confidence of the public. That intangible asset called “good 
will” is the most important item a business can own. There 


8 


INTRODUCTION TO RETAIL SELLING 


is only one way to build up a retail business, and that is by 
building up popular confidence. The ideal has been reached 
when the entire community believes in the store’s advertis¬ 
ing, believes its salesmen, and believes in its goods. This 
means that the public must be served squarely. He who 
hopes to sell each customer but once, knowing that when the 
goods are delivered, there will be dissatisfaction because of 
poor quality of misrepresentation, deserves to be put out of 
business, and honest business men owe it to their calling, as 
well as to the public, to take the lead in checking such 
practices. 

The problem of retail selling. —To render satisfaction 
to the customer and to obtain for the house a fair profit is 
the problem of retail selling. It involves right buying, right 
advertising, right salesmanship, and right policy towards 
customers. It is obvious that to satisfy customers the goods 
must be what they want; but there is more to the problem 
than that. One store may carry exactly the same goods at 
the same prices as another, and yet the customers of the one 
may be better satisfied than the customers of the other. 
Something else must go with the goods to make satisfaction, 
and that something else is the manner in which the goods are 
sold. 

Factors of selling. —Disregarding, for the time being, 
the accessories of retail selling, such as advertising, dis¬ 
play, and other store service, it is clear that a sale brings 
together the following factors: the salesman, the goods, the 
manner of selling, and the customer. To analyze each, to 
trace what actually takes place, and to formulate principles 
of good practice, constitute the science of salesmanship. 
Analysis of the salesman will reveal the necessary qualities 
of personality, made up of the elements of physical health, 
natural ability, education, experience, and character. Anal¬ 
ysis of the goods will reveal quality, construction, appro¬ 
priate uses, values, etc. Analysis of the manner of selling 


9 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 

will show the working of the mind, based on the science of 
psychology. And the study of the customer will reveal 
those elements of human nature that make buying and sell¬ 
ing possible. 

Advertising requires, first of all, a thorough knowledge 
of selling, of the means of selling, and of the character of 
the goods to be sold; since it is for most stores an adjunct, 
or an aid, to selling. Its aim is to serve the selling force 
of the store. On the other hand, its best use calls for a 
good deal of technical knowledge as to the means of ad¬ 
vertising mediums, space location, arrangement within 
space,-type choice, illustrations, decorations, and the wording 
of the matter. The knowledge of these things, plus expert 
salesmanship, makes the professional advertising man. 

Window trimming is another form of advertising, but it 
uses a special medium. Its appeals are made through pleas¬ 
ing and suggestive displays of goods and of show cards. 
Store display is closely allied in principle to window trim¬ 
ming. Both call for ability in salesmanship and a practical 
knowledge of the principles of art. 

Store arrangement has come to be a science in itself. 
Every store manager must, of course, be interested in the 
problem of arrangement, while not a few individuals have 
made such a study of this work as to make their services 
valuable to others. Trade papers maintain regular consul¬ 
tation staffs on this subject, and the future will see this 
phase of retailing given much more scientific attention than 
in the past. 

A science of retail selling, to be complete, is even broader 
than a consideration of the above named things. It should 
consider store system, store organization, store policy, wel¬ 
fare work, buying, and other activities. But, throughout all, 
there must always be borne in mind the final aim of selling 
goods on a basis that will give satisfaction to the customers 
and profit to the one who sells. 


10 


CHAPTER II 


THE SALESMAN 

Reasons for salesmen. —Why are there salesmen ? First, 
because of custom. People have been in the habit of buy- 
ing goods over the counter from salesmen for such a long 
time that everybody expects that there shall be salesmen in 
stores. The alternative to the living salesman is the vend¬ 
ing machine that gives chewing gum, postage stamps, shoe 
laces, confectionery, matches, or other goods in return for 
coins deposited in the slot. Some think the principle of 
the vending machine is applicable on a larger scale to entire 
stores selling groceries, meats, drugs, confectionery, and 
dry goods. There is no doubt that the use of vending ma¬ 
chines will increase. There are many so-called salesmen 
who are really not salesmen at all but merely order-takers, 
whose places might easily be filled by vending machines. 
But there is no mechanical device that can take the place of 
the real salesman. 

To educate buyer. —Second, there are salesmen because 
the best informed buyer cannot know everything, and it is 
the business of salesmen to give him expert information 
about the article on sale. In a certain, but very true, sense 
salesmen are educators of the public, and the standards of 
living and of comfort of civilized nations are due largely 
to the efforts of salesmen. 

To make sales. —A third reason for salesmen is found 
in the fact that most goods seldom sell themselves. Per¬ 


il 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


sonal solicitation seems to be necessary. And where there 
is competition, not price alone but selling ability as well is 
a powerful winning factor. There would be very little life 
insurance sold were it not for the salesmen. Without sales¬ 
men many homes would not possess sewing machines, musi¬ 
cal instruments, and other useful and refining things. Who 
can say that great good has not been accomplished by these 
ambassadors of commerce? Because there are salesmen, 
we are all better dressed, better fed, and better informed 
than we should otherwise be. 

To increase values. —Good salesmanship increases the 
Value of the goods to the consumer. Through the sales¬ 
man, the customer learns to see more attractiveness in the 
commodity, learns new uses for it; in fact, he learns to 
think of it more highly. He is shown how to get both 
pleasure and profit from its possession. Its utility for. him 
is increased; hence it has greater value. 

Importance of the salesman. —The salesman is the con¬ 
necting link between the store and its customers. He is 
the most important factor in the institution. He is the 
host; the customer is the guest; and whether the guest 
shall call again and again depends almost entirely upon 
the manner in which he is treated in the store by the sales¬ 
man. 

Born vs. trained salesmen. —It is well settled now in 
the minds of observing people that good salesmen become 
such not nearly so much because of any peculiar natural 
endowments as because of careful, persistent training and 
study. Good salesmanship does call for strong natural 
endowments, but most people have these endowments at 
least in some degree. Salesmanship calls for very few 
qualities that are not necessary for success in almost any 
other vocation. 

Luck in salesmanship. —It is also well settled that luck 
has but small place in the development of salesmanship. 


12 


THE SALESMAN 


The person who wishes to become expert in selling must 
work, must prepare. Education does not come to one 
through luck, though the opportunity to get it may be the 
result of fortunate circumstances. Experiences with goods 
and with men are not the result of luck. Nearly all of 
the cases usually called lucky could, if the facts were fully 
known, be explained by the fact of previous hard work 
and training. 

Health. —Successful salesmanship, like every other activ¬ 
ity in life, demands, first of all, physical health. This is 
the basis of strong personality. By health is meant not 
only freedom from disease, but an abundance of surplus 
energy, ability to use muscle and mind with vigor, quick 
and keen response of the body to the mind, and control 
that prevents the expenditure of more energy than is nec¬ 
essary. A person in good health cannot long be unhappy. 
Good health is the mainspring of hope, ambition, and opti¬ 
mism. Health is that condition where the mechanism of 
the body is working perfectly. This perfect working is a 
result of the right kinds and amounts of food, drink, air, 
sleep, clothing, shelter, mental attitude, and exercise. 

Rules of right living. —A study of salesmanship, to be 
complete, should include a thorough treatment of personal 
hygiene—the principles that must be applied if the body 
is to be made highly efficient. This in itself might be the 
subject of an entire book, and many good books have been 
written about it. The student of salesmanship is urged to 
study personal hygiene, to read its literature, and to de¬ 
termine definitely that he will give due weight to this im¬ 
portant phase of the science of selling. Every good public 
library contains books on the subject. Study them; follow 
their precepts. 

In this text all that is possible is to give a few general 
rules that are generally recognized as being fundamental. 
The indoor salesman lives and works under conditions 


13 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


that would make it difficult for most people to keep perfect 
health. The lack of fresh air, of sunlight, and of exer¬ 
cise are frequent disadvantages that must be reckoned 
with. Every individual has his own health problems, and 
in some particulars every individual case needs its own 
prescription. But so far as general rules are helpful, the 
following will be found reliable and full of suggestion. 
Certainly if anyone will conscientiously follow them, his 
health problems will be reduced to a minimum. 

1. Eat simple food, not in excess, and of fair variety. 
Eat meat sparingly. No indoor salesman can retain his 
best health and vigor while eating meat three times a 
day, or rich fatty foods continually. 

2. Drink plenty of fresh, pure water and whenever you 
want it. Drinking pure water never brings injury unless 
the water is too cold. 

3. Dress in loose, light, warm, porous, clean clothing. 

4. Keep the skin clean and the pores open. Bathe every 
day if possible. 

5. Sleep eight hours every night. From 10 p. m. to 6 
a. m. are the best hours. 

6. Take some exercise regularly, but moderately, in the 
open air every day. 

7. Insist on having fresh air wherever you are—in your 
working room, living room, and sleeping room. If you 
do, you will be free from colds and lung trouble. 

8. A room temperature of from 60 to 65 degrees Fahren¬ 
heit is the best for working. A temperature above 75 de¬ 
grees dulls ambition, energy, and keen thinking. 

9. Suppress all tendencies towards passions, such as an¬ 
ger, hate, and fear. These, with worry, are certain causes of 
lower vitality and disease. Do the best you can for to-day 
in the best way you know how, and let no troubles of to-mor¬ 
row cause you anxiety. Your mental attitude is not only im¬ 
portant to health, but tremendously important in selling. 


14 


THE SALESMAN 


io. Abstain from alcoholic drinks and tobacco. Neither 
will help anyone to succeed. Both are known to be injuri¬ 
ous under most circumstances. This is sound business ad¬ 
vice. The man who lives in any way so as to cut down 
his energy available for work is shutting the door of oppor¬ 
tunity in his own face. Do not take chances. 

Other qualities. —There are several other qualities which 
success in salesmanship, in common with other business 
activities, depends upon. Among these general but neces¬ 
sary qualities are education and character. The first of 
these opens up opportunities; the second enables one to 
hold them. The first gives its possessor a knowledge of 
men and of things; the second points the right way of 
action among men and things. Character is partly the 
result of education, but it is mostly the result of one’s own 
past thoughts and acts. Both education and character are 
the results of slow, steady growth from childhood up; they 
continue growing throughout the entire life. What the 
growth shall be, whether good or bad, depends upon a 
person’s motives and his surroundings. 

General education. —In these days an education is abso¬ 
lutely essential to success in any business or industry— 
not necessarily school education, for an education can be 
obtained, has been obtained many times, without the ad¬ 
vantages of the institutional school. But there are usually 
a number of difficulties in the way of those who do not 
have the opportunity to go to school, which result in their 
failure ever to get an education. The fact that some suc¬ 
ceed in getting learning outside of schools, and in spite 
of difficulties, does not constitute an argument for that 
method. Everybody recognizes that the school is the best 
way. Yet, even with schooling, it is not certain that the 
student will become truly educated. The school supplies 
the opportunity, the material, and the teacher who shows 
the way; but the student must, himself, do the work. 


*5 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


That means that his mind must have the motive to get 
something out of the teaching, and his eyes, hands, and 
brain must do the work that is to count. The main value 
of the school is that its teachers stimulate motive and show 
short-cuts to intellectual wealth that a man working by 
himself might overlook. 

There has been a great change of opinion concerning the 
value of education during the past few years, and every 
business man seeking either his own or his family’s ad¬ 
vancement and the public welfare should study the needs 
and the tendencies of education. Most merchants and 
salespeople of the generation just past began their careers 
with barely a common school education, with now and 
then a business college course to finish off. To-day one 
meets on all hands in the retail business high school and 
even college graduates in increasing numbers. Some 
stores will not employ inexperienced persons who have less 
than a high school education, while large department stores 
frequently seek out strong college graduates for their im¬ 
portant positions. 

Business education. —The reasons for this change are 
clear. In the first place, education is much more common 
now than ever before. It is easier than formerly to find 
graduates of higher schools who seek business positions. 
In the second place, a good, stiff educational training in high 
school or college gives a fund of knowledge and a power 
of mind, which may not be directly applicable to business 
situations at once, but which become extremely valuable 
after the graduate has received enough business experi¬ 
ence. In the third place, schools' are beginning to offer 
courses of instruction definitely fitting students for busi¬ 
ness-commercial arithmetic, bookkeeping, commercial law, 
commercial correspondence, business management, adver¬ 
tising, and salesmanship. 

How to increase your education. —The retail salesman 


THE SALESMAN 


cannot afford to neglect his education along general lines, if 
lie has not already received a good one. Business demands 
knowledge, particularly in the use of English, in geogra¬ 
phy, arithmetic, history, civics, sociology, and political econ¬ 
omy. Other subjects, such as literature, natural science, 
and higher mathematics are also of value, though not usu¬ 
ally so directly. Knowledge of English is the most funda¬ 
mental of all. It includes good vocabulary, ability to ex¬ 
press one’s thoughts clearly and pleasantly, and good pn> 
nunciation. Selling is helped by correct language; cor¬ 
rect language places one on a par with all who use the 
same language. Recently the Columbia Phonograph Com¬ 
pany issued a vest pocket dictionary giving the pronunci¬ 
ation of all of the terms and names appearing on its musical 
records. It was found that salesmen who could not pro¬ 
nounce these words correctly were losing some sales. One 
should know his own business, and knowing his business 
means, among other things, knowing how to express him¬ 
self about it in every one of its phases in an intelligent 
manner. 

Knowledge of common arithmetic is absolutely essential, 
but it is so uncommon among the masses of salesmen as 
to cause great losses and much trouble. The possession of 
a large amount of arithmetical knowledge is not so impor¬ 
tant as the ability to use well the fundamental operations of 
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole 
numbers, and common and decimal fractions. Nothing but 
drill and attention will make one proficient in these matters. 
Every salesman should be skilled in making change. He 
should be able to give the cost for quantities and fractions 
of quantities of whatever goods he sells, without hesitation 
and without error. The following are types of some of 
the problems that have caused many salesmen to use up 
enormous amounts of time in the aggregate, and to make 
numerous costly errors: 


17 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


What is the cost of f of a yard of cloth at 90c per 
yard ? 

What shall be the selling price of 22 inches of velvet 
18 in. wide, cut on bias, at $2.25 per yard? 

How to make change, when the customer buys $2.45 
worth of goods, and offers in payment a $5.00 bill? 
The cash register contains nothing but dollars, 
half dollars, and dimes. You ask the customer 
if he has the right change. He says, “I have no 
other money except a quarter.” 

One traveling salesman offers the buyer trade discounts 
of 25% and 10%. Another offers 33% for the 
same goods. Which is the better proposition? 

There are many simpler problems than these in which 
salesmen in every store make mistakes—mistakes that thor¬ 
ough education and training would eliminate. 

There is an opportunity for anyone who cares to do so, 
to build up his general education. One method is to get 
the books bearing upon the subject and to study by oneself; 
another is to study by correspondence; and still another 
is to get the help of a tutor at odd hours. In some large 
cities, night schools offer excellent advanced courses which 
are patronized by large numbers of salesmen and sales¬ 
women. 

All education needs to be supplemented by reading and 
study of present day topics. General knowledge can ' be 
built up very greatly by careful reading of the best maga¬ 
zines and papers. Good business demands that one should 
never fail to keep in touch with the chief events of the 
day. 

Character. —Character is a composite thing. It is made 
up of various ideals and habits that cause us to do the 
things of life in certain ways. It represents what we really 
are, both mentally and morally. What other people know 
of our character is called our reputation. Possibly, from 


18 


THE SALESMAN 


a business standpoint, reputation might be called the more 
important. But reputation represents what people see of 
our character, and since what we really are is bound to 
be known in the long run, character is the thing that needs 
attention. If character is good, let reputation take care 
of itself. 

Present demands. —Business practice has lately changed 
much with respect to the demands upon character. It used 
to be considered sufficient for business purposes if a man 
paid his debts and kept his contracts and other obligations, 
no matter how black his character might otherwise be. 
Now, while conditions are still not ideal, the path of the 
transgressor is made much harder. The immoral employe 
finds it difficult to find a position, or to keep it; not only 
the dishonest, but the loose-living merchant finds trouble in 
getting all the credit he may want; customers avoid lying 
salesmen; and never before have graft and crookedness 
been so generally frowned upon. The tests of character 
are much more incisive and searching than ever before. 
Reputation comes closer and closer to being the true pic¬ 
ture of character. Steps are taken by those in business 
to know all about others with whom they come in contact, 
not only from a business standpoint, but also socially and 
personally. The credit man of the wholesale store or man¬ 
ufacturer has a complete personal record of the character 
as well as the business standing of his customers. The 
employer in the large department store has a record of the 
personal character of every salesman from infancy up. If 
you were an employer, it would be your duty to know 
your employes in as full a manner as possible. That is 
good business in these days. The right kind of men and 
women welcome this. It is to their advantage. As for the 
others—all the more reason for the new system. 

Results of dishonesty. —A man who is not honest in mod¬ 
ern business is ignorant, shortsighted, or simple-minded 


19 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Dishonesty simply does not pay. It is not necessary that dis¬ 
honesty should be found out and proved, in order to result 
in damage. In fact, the finding out of the dishonesty of 
the wrong-doer might be the easiest way out of the diffi¬ 
culty for him. The one who does wrong, gets found out, 
and pays the penalty, may have an end to his misfortune. 
But the dishonest individual who is not found out also 
pays a penalty. In the first place, the act of dishonesty 
becomes in his mind something to be hidden. He must be 
careful. He ceases to be open-minded and open-hearted. 
His fear of being found out, if he is not careful, leads him 
into becoming reserved, suspicious, and unattractive. His 
ability as a salesman is impaired. He fails to improve as 
rapidly as before. He fails, therefore, of promotions and 
better places. Though not found out, lie may be suspected 
by his employer. There are a thousand different signs and 
methods by which suspicion may be aroused, yet without 
convicting proof. The dishonest employe loses his employ¬ 
er’s confidence. This means again, no promotion; and, 
when dull times come, this salesman is the first to lose his 
place. He may think that he was dismissed by his em¬ 
ployer because of dull times! That was only a part of the 
reason. 

There are other desirable qualities of character, as, for 
instance, economy, promptness, initiative, ambition, self- 
confidence, determination, and willingness to learn. 
Many more could be added. In fact, the qualities of char¬ 
acter essential for success in salesmanship are the same as 
the qualities essential for success in any other walk of life. 

Economy of living. —There is need that strong words 
should be spoken upon the subject of economy. For the 
individual on a salary, no matter how low it may be, there 
is but one rule—he should live within the amount received. 
To do otherwise leads to the most serious difficulties to be 
found in business to-day. There is among many groups of 


20 


THE SALESMAN 


business women a dangerous desire to outshine one an¬ 
other. Those living at home, and who contribute little or 
nothing for board and room, can, of course, easily outdo 
their fellow workers who are not so fortunate. To make 
up for the difference some salespeople unfortunately have 
been led into dishonesty, theft, or other immorality. This 
is a well recognized problem among business concerns. 
It has been found absolutely necessary in many stores to 
make rules regarding the kind of dress to be worn by 
women employes while on duty. Much can be done by 
older salespeople, by showing the right example and by 
giving judicious advice to the younger members of the 
force. The following case is typical and true. In a depart¬ 
ment store in Chicago the girls in the inspecting and wrap¬ 
ping department had taken to wearing unbecoming, large 
“rats” in their hair, with changes for every shift in the 
prevailing city fashions. The head of the department, a 
sensible lady, foreseeing trouble in the continuance of the 
practice, called the girls together and gave them a frank, 
friendly talk upon the subject. The girls were impressed, 
and the result was that the janitor carried out a full bushel 
basket of “rats,” voluntarily thrown away by the young 
ladies. 

This criticism has been aimed chiefly at business women, 
but it might in many cases be applied equally to men also. 
Live within your income. By doing so you will supply 
people with a good sign of your integrity. There should be 
no regular position in any business house which pays less 
than a living wage. The existence of such places are bad 
for the employe and worse for the business in the long 
run. 

Be on time. —All business people, especially salespeople, 
need to be prompt. Business is complex. It takes many 
individuals working together in unison to make it succeed. 
When a man is appointed to a place in any business, he is 


21 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


needed there for the full measure of time. He must be on 
time either at his place of work or at his place of appoint¬ 
ment. To be on time is a sign of strong character. It is a 
good recommendation for a person when another says of 
him: “He is always on time.” 

Watching the clock. —Watching the clock has been the 
cause of more disaster to ambitions than most people would 
believe. The reason for it is this. It is a sign to the em¬ 
ployer or others interested in the business, of lack of inter¬ 
est on the part of the employe. No interested person will 
think of the clock until the very minute of closing. The em¬ 
ployer reasons: “How can I promote one who does not care 
about my work ? I want people who are anxious to help me.” 
No person working for another, who desires to climb, can 
afford to have his employer think in this way about him. 
What to do is obvious—get interested in your work. If 
you are unable to become interested, for your own good 
seek other employment. 

Initiative. —Initiative is a quality that few people have 
in marked degree. It is one of the most valuable qualities, 
though, and must be possessed by executives or managers. 
Salesmanship, as we shall see, gives opportunity for the 
development of initiative to a much greater extent than 
most other occupations. Initiative is essentially the result 
of a desire to do, a knowledge of conditions, and wide- 
awakeness concerning the business. It is a quality that 
can certainly be developed by turning one’s attention and 
effort to it. 

Ambition. —Ambition is the quality that makes one dis¬ 
satisfied with present position or present results. Progress 
is the result of ambition. Life becomes interesting because 
of it. “Fair” is the best adjective that can ever be applied 
to the work of any person who lacks in ambition. Yet, 
while ambition is so essential, it must not run away from 
the rest of the man. It must be kept on a level with health, 


22 


THE SALESMAN 


and must be accompanied by persistent self-preparation. 
To be progressive is to be ambitious. When people grow 
old, ambition is lost, and ways become set. But age is 
not a matter of years only. Ambition not only leads to 
higher places but also staves off that period that we call 
“growing old.” 

Self-confidence. —If there is any one quality that is no¬ 
ticeably lacking in most, people, it is self-confidence. There 
are many who put on a veneer of bravado—who puff them¬ 
selves up with conceit; but the quiet, powerful force of self- 
confidence that says little, but knows, and shows that it 
knows, what to do next, is really rare. Conceit and all at¬ 
tempts to convince other people of our self-confidence by 
mere talking, are signs of weakness of character. Lack 
of self-confidence is caused by fear. This fear constantly 
dogs us and tells us, “You can’t do it; you can’t do it!” 
when, in all likelihood, the doing would be easy. There 
are no persons who are so self-confident as those who are 
perfectly frank with themselves, who are not afraid to 
admit their failures, and who are ready to measure what¬ 
ever ability they have regardless of the showing. Frank¬ 
ness is closely associated with this quality. What you 
know you can do makes you reliant; uncertainty causes 
fear. Insincerity under strain causes fear, and confidence 
falls down. Bluffing sometimes succeeds, but its failures, 
when they do come, seriously outbalance its successes. 
The fear that causes lack of self-confidence not only grows 
out of lack of knowledge or experience, but also out of the 
condition of the body. Self-reliance and confidence naturally 
accompany health. It is not surprising that a person with 
dyspeptic stomach, with brain fogged from loss of sleep, 
or system deranged from use of improper foods or bever¬ 
ages should back down at critical moments. Salesmen 
need self-confidence. To get it, they must know their 
goods, their business, their own abilities, and keep their 


23 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


bodies in the pink of health. Add experience to these things, 
and the confidence that wins will be theirs. 

Determination and working capacity. —Determination 
is the ability to stick to the work, to the customer, to an 
ambition, or to a worthy idea until it yields results. It 
gives working capacity. It keeps its possessor at work when 
the average individual would quit. It carries the work 
to completion thoroughly and with satisfaction to the 
worker. 

Discipline. —One other general quality, valuable to all 
classes of business people, is that of amenability to dis¬ 
cipline. Modern industry and commerce have developed to 
such an extent that every business house must have its parts 
working together so as to prevent friction. This result is 
obtainable only by system and discipline. Inability to fit 
one’s self into modern system bespeaks an arrested devel' 
opment, suitable only to small individual concerns, and to 
a past condition of industry. The chief accomplishments 
of to-day are the result of team work; and this means each 
individual acting intelligently but completely under 
direction. 


CHAPTER III 

KNOWLEDGE AS AN ASSET IN SELLING 

Review. —In the two preceding chapters we discussed the 
place and purpose of retailing, and the general or funda¬ 
mental qualities which salesmen, in common with other 
business men, must possess. It was stated that, although 
the making of profit was the motive for establishing indi¬ 
vidual business units, the whole industrial system is a social 
institution, that it exists for the purpose of supplying peo¬ 
ple’s wants, taking goods from where they are plentiful and 
putting them down where they are in demand. The retail 
salesman is needed because people have the habit of trading 
with him, because he helps to educate buyers concerning 
their wants, because he is a powerful factor in competition, 
and, lastly, because his services really increase the value of 
goods to the consumer. The successful salesman must be 
healthy, must have education, must be honest, must live 
economically and sensibly, must be prompt, must have ambi¬ 
tion, initiative, self-confidence, determination, working ca¬ 
pacity, and must be subject to discipline. 

Technical knowledge. —In addition to the qualifications 
for success in any business, already explained, there are cer¬ 
tain requirements specifically fitting one for successful sales¬ 
manship. Aside from experience, which must be assumed 
as essential in every case, these requirements are largely 
matters of special knowledge and common business sense. 
What is meant by common business sense is comprehended 


25 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


under the expressions, knowledge of the goods to be sold, 
knowledge of the house, knowledge of general business con¬ 
ditions, and knowledge of people. It is in respect to these 
kinds of knowledge and their applications that salesmanship 
is set off from all other occupations; and in proportion as 
the salesman extends his abilities in these lines, his selling 
becomes more and more scientific, and his occupation more 
and more a profession. 

Knowledge of the goods. —A story has gone the rounds 
that one of the most successful salesmen in Germany was 
asked the reason for his success. He replied, “I defy any 
man to ask me any question about my goods that I can’t 
answer.” That is knowledge of the goods . 

Stock. —The first thing that a salesman needs to do on 
coming into a store is to learn the stock that he is to sell— 
where it is, what it is, in what quantities it is kept, and its 
prices. The constant selling and movement of goods call 
for regular study of stock. The salesman must know his 
stock so that he can instantly turn to what is asked for, if 
it is in stock at all. His knowledge of stock must neces¬ 
sarily be up to date, so that his reports for buying may be 
made in sufficient time to prevent any possibility of his being 
“just out” of any goods that ought to be on hand. He must 
•know his stock so well that, if a customer has no preference, 
he may at once turn to the kind of goods in which the store 
has the largest supply, or which usually move the slowest. 
Every store has such goods, which, if not handled in this 
way, will accumulate and become a dead loss. 

Prices. —There should be no hesitancy in giving the price, 
and, therefore, all goods should be clearly marked. To 
omit the price mark is to trust to memory. When prices 
are not marked, an extra salesman called into the store in 
case of emergency would be entirely at a loss, and even the 
best memories are likely to fail at times. Marking obviates 
loss. And yet the salesman should not rely solely on price 

26 


KNOWLEDGE AS AN ASSET IN SELLING 

marks. He should know his prices so well that when he 
makes his selections to show the customer, he will select 
what he thinks will suit in price as well as quality. 

Uses. —Next to knowledge of stock and prices comes 
knowledge of the uses of goods. The knowledge of stock 
and of prices simply gives ability to wait on customers, and 
to give them just what they have already made up their 
minds that they want. This is “order-taking.” Salesman¬ 
ship begins when the salesman describes the goods. Fully 
four-fifths of so-called salesmen are simply “order-takers.” 
They wait on customers; they do not sell them. 

What are the uses for the article? If a cloth, is it dress 
goods or suiting? Is it for young, middleaged, or old 
persons? Is it for working, house, street, or reception 
wear? Can it be used for anything else appropriately? 
Similarly in the shoe department: Are the shoes suitable 
for rough, or ordinary, or light outdoor use? Are they for 
tender feet? Are they for working or dress purposes? 
Questions like these can be asked for every article sold. 
After learning the stock, the salesman should school him¬ 
self thoroughly and completely on uses of the goods for sale 
in the store, so far, at least, as goods allied to his own line 
are concerned. If this were done, a mistake like the fol¬ 
lowing would not occur. A lady came to the men’s hosiery 
counter and asked for long tan hose for a boy of four¬ 
teen. The order-taker replied, “We have none.” A 
salesman who overheard the conversation invited the cus¬ 
tomer to go to the misses’ hosiery department, where she 
got what she wanted. 

Qualities. —Salesmanship does not stop with the ability 
to tell what the goods are for, if it seems to be necessary 
to give other points in order to make the sale. The sales¬ 
man must know and must be able to tell in the plainest, yet 
most attractive way, about the qualities and structure or 
composition of the goods. This often calls for a knowledge 


27 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


of how the goods are made, the processes they have gone 
through, the labor put upon them, the care exercised, etc. 
It may also call for a knowledge of the history of the article. 
Add to this a knowledge of similar goods and competitive 
makes, and you have one of the substantial bases of sales¬ 
manship. It matters not how poor a personality one may 
have, or how lacking in tact he may be, if he is honest and 
knows his goods and has ability to express what he knows 
in simple language, he will be able to achieve some success 
in selling. He will not be the most successful salesman 
without personality and tact; but he will have assured value. 
People like to trade with men who know their goods and 
who can give information about their uses, qualities, struc¬ 
ture, etc. They have confidence in such salesmen. 

With reference to any particular article, the following 
questions will suggest what the salesman should know: 

Where and how is the article made? What is it made 
of? Will it wear well? Will its colors come out or fade? 
What does it cost to produce ? Why does it cost that much ? 
What are its advantages over similar articles? Has the 
article had an interesting history? 

Analysis of knowledge of goods. —As a further help to 
the salesman who wishes to study his goods in a professional 
way, there follows an outline of the points that make up 
the knowledge that a good salesman should have about the 
goods he sells. Not all the points are applicable to every 
sort of goods, but most of them are: 

1. What goods are in stock. 

a. Ranges in sizes, qualities, colors, and prices. 

b. Quantities of each. 

2. Where goods are located. 

a. Stock on sale. 

b. Reserve stock. 

3. Specific knowledge about each article. 

a. Selling price. 


28 


KNOWLEDGE AS AN ASSET IN SELLING 


b. Condition. 

c. How long in stock. 

d. Its uses. 

e. Purposes for'which it is best suited. 

f. Convenience. 

g. Comfort. 

h. Durability. 

i. Safety. 

j. Purity. 

k. Style. 

l . Its points of beauty. 

m. What it is made of. 

n. Methods of making. 

o. Costs to produce. 

Material, labor, machinery, transportation, 
tariff, etc. 

p. Available supply in the market. 

q. History of the uses of the article. 

r. Present tendencies in use. 

s. Competition with other makes of the same article. 

t. Competition with other goods. 

u. The makers and their reputation. 

v. Guaranty that can be given. 

w. Tests for its qualities. 

x. Satisfaction it gives to present users or has given 

to past users. 

How to learn the goods. —How shall a salesman get 
knowledge of his goods? By carefully examining and 
studying the goods themselves; by making inquiries of other 
members of the store organization; by inquiries of the trav¬ 
eling salesmen who sell the goods; by writing to the manu¬ 
facturers for information; and by the study of the literature 
bearing on the subject. He should read the advertising 
matter of the manufacturer or dealer who distributes the 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


goods. A book on commercial geography is more valuable 
to salespeople than to anyone else because it traces the pro¬ 
duction of goods and their distribution over the world. 
Trade papers, standard magazines, and encyclopedias con¬ 
tain much help for an enterprising salesman. Whole books 
are written about many articles; and to know some lines of 
goods requires a lifetime of study. Salesmen have made 
great reputations by their special knowledge of some par¬ 
ticular articles. 

Knowledge of the house. —The salesman needs to keep 
informed about general business conditions, such as the fac¬ 
tors affecting prices and values and the tendencies in supply 
and demand in his own goods. He should study broadly 
the effects of national and state legislation, the relations of 
capital and labor in the industrial world, and the tendencies 
and efforts to teach higher efficiency. In all these matters 
he needs to keep himself open-minded. He should try to 
see both sides of open questions, and cultivate liberality of 
view. Very few propositions are either all right or all 
wrong. Avoid partisanship if you want to be a successful 
merchant. General business conditions are guides to the 
forecasting of future possibilities, and are, therefore, what 
every buyer must study. 

Knowledge of people. —Last, but not least, among the 
special fields of knowledge in which the salesman must be¬ 
come proficient, is that of knowledge of people. Bringing 
knowledge of goods and knowledge of people together 
makes quick sales of goods. This kind of knowledge is 
often called knowledge of “human nature,” and sometimes 
“practical psychology.” Whatever its name, it means knowl¬ 
edge of what people think, of how they feel, of what they 
do, of the things they like and dislike, their customs, habits, 
observances, their ways of living, their food, clothing, 
shelter, amusements, their education, their social classes, 
their ways of making a living, their home surroundings, 


30 


knowledge as an asset in selling 


religions, and societies. Alexander Pope said, “The proper 
study of mankind is man” It is truly the study for sales¬ 
men. What a salesman knows about his customers governs 
to a great degree what he will say to them, what articles to 
show, and what selling arguments to use. The man with 
knowledge is always respected. All people like to trade 
with the retailer who knows what they want, how they want 
it, and when they want it. 

False methods of study. —There is no easy or royal road 
to a knowledge of people. Experience and observing eyes 
are necessary. Many people have been led to believe that 
it is possible to learn to read people by the shape of their 
heads, by facial features, or other signs. It should be said, 
once for all, that there is absolutely no scientific ground for 
most of these beliefs. They turn the attention of the stu¬ 
dent away from the true direction and method of study, 
and are, therefore, harmful. Phrenology was upset when 
scientists actually discovered what the brain functions were, 
and when it was found that these were not at all in the 
places indicated by the phrenologists. Physiognomy has an 
element of truth in it, but it cannot be trusted far. The 
nose, chin, forehead, and hands have been held responsible 
for many qualities. All of these signs fail under searching 
criticism. The color of the hair and of the eyes has noth¬ 
ing to do with what a man thinks, or with his character. 
Honesty cannot be judged from the shape of the ears. 

Physiognomy. —There is an element of truth in physiog¬ 
nomy, as stated above. A man who is thinking tends to 
express what he has in mind. Signs of this may be de¬ 
tected in the eyes, in the movement of the smaller muscles 
of the face, even in the walk, the posture, and so on. The 
real character reader is the one who engages a person in 
conversation, or watches him while he is at work and is un¬ 
conscious of being watched. The character reader watches 
every movement; he notes not only what is said, but also 


3i 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


how it is said. When he imparts information to the indi¬ 
vidual that is being tested, he watches the features to see 
whether the information is received with favor or disfavor. 
With such evidence, collected in fragments, purely circum¬ 
stantial in character, he may shrewdly guess what another 
person thinks and feels, and what his character may be. 
Even at that, unless the observation is very complete and 
for a considerable time, and is backed up by real evidence 
of past acts, information from others, and other facts, mis¬ 
takes in judgment might easily be made. 

Psychology in business. —A business man can get much 
help and direction in his efforts to learn about people and 
human nature from the sciences of psychology and sociol¬ 
ogy. Psychology is the science of the individual mind, 
while sociology is the science of society. Sociology shows 
why people come together for various purposes, their mo¬ 
tives, methods of thinking together, and accomplishments 
in these associations. In a text of this kind it would not be 
possible to take up a study of sociology. But psychology 
so plainly lays the foundations for selling that it will be 
necessary to spend considerable time upon it. Selling is 
really a psychological interaction of individual minds. The 
next chapter will present a brief outline of the subject of 
psychology as applied to selling. 


CHAPTER IV 

THE PSYCHOLOGY OP SELLING 

Psychology and business. —Psychology is a word that has 
come into business to stay. It supplies most of the theory 
upon which all good salesmanship is based. Every sales¬ 
man who attempts to suit his customers, to influence them 
to come to a decision, and to get them to grasp new ideas 
about goods, practices the principles of psychology whether 
he knows it or nojt. The more successful he is in his work, 
the closer he follows those principles. Anyone who must 
work with people for his results, either in selling or buying, 
or in employing and managing men, practices the principles 
of psychology, and is a good psychologist in proportion to 
his knowledge of why he follows certain methods. But 
even if it is possible to get along well with people, to sell, 
buy, employ, and be employed, with only an intuitive knowl¬ 
edge of this science, it goes without saying that the bring¬ 
ing of its principles broadly out into the open, and the 
studying of them, should be a much surer and quicker way 
to business efficiency. 

Definition and use of psychology. —Psychology, as a 
science, simply explains how our minds are constituted. It 
shows how ideas get into the mind, and how they work 
after they get in. This is not the usual definition found in 
the books on the subject, but it is what they mean, so far as 
business is concerned. The salesman wants to get the idea 
into the mind of the customer that the article to De sold is 


33 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 

just what the customer wants. He wants that idea to work 
in the customer’s mind, and to stick, so that the customer 
will remain satisfied. How all this occurs is explained in 
psychology. 

The mind. —No one knows what the mind is, except that 
it is the thing within us that thinks, and feels, and decides 
what we shall do and what we shall not do. But even if 
we do not know what the mind is, we are quite sure about 
where and how it works, in a general way. Its organs are 
the brain and the nerves. 

The brain. —The brain is the headquarters or main office 
of the nervous system. It is here that the mind seems to 
be and it is certainly here that the mind’s principal work is 
done. The brain is completely surrounded by the bones of 
the head, which form a protecting box. Through the bony 
sides of this box there are but a few small openings. These 
admit only blood-vessels and nerves. The largest opening, 
which is at the bottom of the skull, lets in the largest nerve 
of all, the spinal cord. 

Roads to the brain. —Whatever is to reach the brain in 
a natural way must come in through either the blood-vessels 
or the nerves. The use of the blood-vessels is known. 
They carry nourishment and heat to the brain and waste 
matter away from it. Ideas, or the stuff that causes ideas, 
must, therefore, come in through the nerves. 

The nervous system. —If we follow the nerves out from 
the brain we shall find that these little white fibers run out 
to all parts of the body. As they proceed outward, they 
branch out like trees, until the surface of the body, just 
beneath the skin, is covered so thickly with these minute 
fibers that it would be hard to find a single place no larger 
than the point of a needle that is not occupied by nerve fibers 
or their endings. 

Special senses. —Two of the nerves leaving the brain run 
out to the eyes, and have their endings in the eyes. Other 


34 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SELLING 


nerves run out to and end in the ears, nose, and mouth. 
It is clear that these are nerves of great importance to the 
mind. Through them we get our sensations of sight, 
hearing, smell, and taste. 

Structure of the brain. —The brain itself, as well as the 
largest nerves, is not a solid mass, but is made up of an 
immense number of cells with delicate little fibers con¬ 
necting them all together in a multitude of ways. These 
cells can be seen only under a high-power microscope. 
Their number is so great that imagination fails to grasp 
the meaning of the figures. We may gain some compara¬ 
tive idea, however, from the statement that if a person 
should try to count them, and counted fifty per minute for 
twelve hours per day, it would take him over 200 years to 
finish the counting! Yet we may assume that each cell 
with its attached fibers has its use in the processes of think¬ 
ing and the other work of the mind. 

Sensation. —Let us see how an impression passes from, 
the outside of the body into the brain. Suppose you place 
your finger on the point of a pencil. The little nerve end¬ 
ings are very plentiful in the skin of your fingers. The 
pencil point comes in contact with some of them. This 
contact, or touch as we call it, excites the nerve endings, 
and they start a current of some kind, perhaps like an elec¬ 
tric current in a telephone or electric light wire, back along 
the nerve until it reaches the brain. We are positive that 
there is a current. If the nerve were cut off at the arm, 
we should never be able to feel the point of the pencil on 
the finger. The rate of speed at which the current travels 
has been measured, and it has been found to be a much 
slower current than electricity in a wire. The nerve cur¬ 
rents differ in speed in different individuals, and even at 
different times in the same individual, depending upon 
bodily condition or health. 

Brain impression. —When the current reaches the brain, 

J5 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


it passes to the particular part that receives sensation cur¬ 
rents from your finger, and here, in some cell, an impres¬ 
sion is made. Just what kind of impression we do not 
know. No microscope has revealed just what it looks like, 
but the facts seem to show that there is formed some sort 
of real furrow or indentation which remains in the brain. 
No attempt will be made to describe what takes place in 
the brain and mind accurately. The processes are most 
complex, and scientists have not yet been able to trace 
them out completely. There is much dispute and differ¬ 
ence of opinion over many of the finer points. All that 
is intended here is to give a concrete basis which shall be 
sufficiently correct to supply a true working theory upon 
which may be built an explanation of the psychology of 
business, and of selling in particular. 

Experience made up of impressions. —Every impression 
that reaches the brain, whether from the skin, the eyes, 
ears, nose, tongue, or elsewhere, passes in through nerves, 
and leaves a definite mark in the brain. Our daily experi¬ 
ences—what we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel—consist of 
nerve currents entering the brain and leaving indentations 
of some kind in the appropriate brain cells. 

Impressions and memory. —While we do not know what 
the mind is, we do know that it works upon these impres¬ 
sions, indentations, or furrows that have been made in the 
brain by incoming nerve currents. Where the impression 
is made, the mind is present, and we say we knozv, or zve 
see, or we smell, etc. In the illustration we started with, 
yon knczv that you were touching a pencil point. A little 
later your mind may come back to that particular impres¬ 
sion made in the brain; then you will recall how the pencil 
point felt. That is- memory. 

The brain a record. —The adult brain is a sort of record 
of the experiences of life over which, and through which, 
the mind moves, in much the same way as a phonograph 

36 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SELLING 


reproducer moves over the indented wax cylinder. Passing 
back over the old impressions has the effect of recalling 
the images of the things which originally caused the im¬ 
pressions. 

Brain plasticity. —But the brain is not entirely like the 
phonograph wax cylinder. Its material is live, plastic, and 
somewhat elastic or springy. The impressions made by in¬ 
coming nerve currents are deepest just after the making. 
The brain matter in the cells gradually springs back, but 
in most cases it can never recover so far as to obliterate 
the trace of the impression entirely. If it could, we should 
remember nothing. As it is, we recall best within two 
seconds after an experience. After twenty minutes the 
recoil of the matter has almost been completed. What we 
can remember that long is likely to stay with us indefinitely. 

How we recall. —The succession of impressions from out¬ 
side upon the brain tends to make a sort of track or furrow, 
leading from one impression to the next, in regular order. 
What is meant may best be described by illustration. Im¬ 
agine an ordinary list of incidents, such as might come to 
any salesman. Suppose that you are a dry goods salesman. 
You arrive at the store at eight o’clock in the morning; the 
weather is clear; the sun is shining; you meet some ac¬ 
quaintances as you enter the building; Mr. Brown, another 
salesman, you see, has reached the store ahead of you and 
is busy taking the coverings off the counters and shelves; 
you remove your coat and hat and begin your work, arrang¬ 
ing your stock and wiping up the dust; you see an edge of 
the cloth on one bolt that looks frayed; you try to improve 
it by trimming it with a pair of scissors, but instead of 
putting the scissors in your pocket you place them on a shelf 
and go on with your work with just a single thought that 
you may have to use the scissors again soon in a similar 
way, but the occasion does not arise; the store manager 
calls you to another part of the store; a discussion arises 


37 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


on the policy of buying an article of which a salesman left 
a sample at the store the evening before; then some cus¬ 
tomers come in; you serve those coming to your depart¬ 
ment; shortly before noon a customer comes in who buys 
some cloth; you put your hand to your pocket for your 
scissors and find them gone. Just what do you do? Your 
mind seems to jump back in time, possibly to yesterday, 
and it seems to be able to follow very accurately the line 
of events that occurred to you. You recall no instance 
where the scissors were used and not put back. Then your 
mind retraces the impressions of the events of this morning. 
Quickly you recall everything, down to the very act of 
cutting the frayed edges off the cloth. Then you remember! 
The next impression in your brain tells you where you laid 
the scissors and how it happened. You go directly to the 
place where they are, and get them. 

Conditions of good memory. —There are connections 
between the impressions in the brain , due to the fact that 
the impressions were made closely one after the other. 
Each impression stands for an idea, and the clearness and 
ease of recollection of this idea depends entirely upon the 
character of the impression and the pathway leading into 
it. If the pathway is deep and well defined, memory is 
good; if broken and shallow, recollection is difficult. 

Association with other impressions. —There is one other 
factor besides the connection of ideas that assists ease of 
recall; that is the number of paths that lead into an impres¬ 
sion. If we have the same thing happen to us, or see the 
same thing, a number of times in different connections, it 
is clear that the thing will be represented in a similar num¬ 
ber of paths. That is to say, a number of paths will cross 
each other at a common point, which point is the impression 
of the thing that has been experienced or seen several times. 
This is important, since study of mental action shows that 
the mind does not readily leave paths already made, if, 

38 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SELLING 


indeed, it ever does so; hence, if an impression of an idea 
has but a single pathway that the mind can follow into it, 
it may be more difficult to recall than if there were several 
pathways. 

How to improve memory. —Applying this knowledge of 
brain action to practical life, we can readily see how mem¬ 
ory can be developed and strengthened. If we desire to 
remember certain things well, we must consider that recol¬ 
lection comes from the mind’s access to and use of impres¬ 
sions in the brain matter. Good memory is characterized 
by deep, well defined “impressions,” with plenty of paths 
through which the mind can approach the particular “im¬ 
pression” that represents the idea that we want to recall. 

Remembering names. —For example, how do you recall 
the name of a man whom you met some days ago? At 
that time, you met him coming down the street with a 
friend of yours. You saw his face, his clothes, his way of 
walking; you heard the sound of his voice. Your friend 
introduced him to you as Mr. Brewer. Remarks followed 
about the pleasant weather, crops, business prospects, etc., 
and you passed on. Mentally, the meeting resulted in the 
forming of a new path of impressions in your brain, among 
which there are several that came definitely from the man 
you met, through your eyes, the touch of his hand, and 
through your ears. Among the impressions you heard and 
.‘ poke his name. 

Now, when you meet him to-day, you recognize him at 
once. You recall the place and circumstance of meeting 
him, but you cannot at first recall his name. Rapidly your 
mind runs over the pathways formed on that day, and per¬ 
sistently—nay, sometimes painfully—seeks that little path¬ 
way that leads into the impression that will recall the words, 
“Mr. Brewer.” Your mind tries one lead after another, 
only to find that they do not bring up the name. You 
hesitate helplessly; then, if your mind is fortunate, it strikes 


39 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


the right track, the impression is discovered, and you say, 
“Mr. Brewer.” 

Science of memorizing. —Now, is there not a scientific 
way of remembering such a difficult thing as a name? 
Salesmen need to know how to do this more than any other 
group of people, unless it be politicians. This is the way 
it may be done: When you meet Mr. Brewer, get the name 
clearly, speak it clearly, fasten your mind upon it. That 
will make the impression deep. Next, say it to yourself 
while you look at the man’s eyes, face, form, and when you 
hear him speak and see him walk. This will give you many 
pathways leading into the impression. After he has left you, 
recall his name a few times during the next twenty minutes. 
This will fix his name so that you will know him anywhere 
you may see him, and so that you can call him by name 
almost the very moment after you catch a glimpse of him. 

The same method may be applied in the learning of other 
things that must be memorized, and with equal success. 
Attend with all your will power to the thing you wish to 
remember, repeat it several times and after intervals of 
rest, and, lastly, associate it with as many of your other 
ideas as ypu can. This is the science of memorizing. 

Flights and stops of the mind. —The adult brain is criss¬ 
crossed in thousands of directions by pathways such as we 
have described. During all our waking hours, the mind 
travels through them, from one to another, choosing for 
itself which course to take at every point of crossing. Its 
movements are irregular, consisting of stops and flights, 
the stops occurring in the idea impressions, and the flights 
along the pathway between impressions. The amount of 
time spent at each stop varies, but probably averages less 
than three seconds. 

Mental feeling. —Which route shall be taken when path¬ 
ways cross is partly determined by a special quality of the 
mind; namely, feeling. Every impression brings to the 


40 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SELLING 


mind some kind of feeling, sometimes good, sometimes bad, 
sometimes pleasure, sometimes pain. The mind naturally 
selects the route which will bring it pleasure. There are 
some exceptions to this, but, for business purposes, we 
may assume that human minds constantly seek to be made 
happy or pleased, that ideas yielding such satisfaction will 
be welcomed, and that the painful kind will be ignored and 
spurned. 

Pleasure and interest. —In many cases there is no acute 
pleasure or pain involved in an idea; it may be said to be 
almost neutral. It is to be noted that such ideas are not 
particularly interesting. How much pleasure or pain or 
interest do you feel when I say that John Jones of New 
York will be promoted next week? The best that you can 
do is merely to tolerate the reading of the sentence. How¬ 
ever, if you had heard that you were to be promoted next 
week, the idea of promotion would carry strong feeling 
with it, and surely of the pleasurable kind. Every time 
your mind would return to it, you would feel a glow of 
pleasure. 

Sense of being right. —Pleasure for the mind is in many 
cases only the sense of being right, or on the right track. 
What is thought must be true. The mind always wants 
to be square with itself. We say that we hate ourselves 
for taking a false position. A liar can never be truly proud 
of himself, and a dissembler never truly happy, because of 
this mental quality of feeling. Your mind rebels and objects 
to going any further with a set of ideas when you find one 
that is not true according to your past expei’ence. If some 
one tells yon that a yard is forty inches long, you throw the 
idea aside and never go back to it. The mind never will¬ 
ingly permits you to call black white. 

Expression. —Every part of the brain is connected directly 
or indirectly with the rest of the body, or, at least, with 
parts of it, by the nervous system. When the mind with 


4i 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


its moving energy receives an idea from a brain impression, 
it tends to send out currents over the nerves from the 
brain to the body. Mention a favored toy to a child, and 
see its face light up with pleasure. The energy of the mind 
has overflowed from the brain out into the face. Some one 
tells a funny story. Most of us see the point, and the out¬ 
going currents from the brain cause laughter. Some one 
in Mary’s hearing remarks about the frequent calls of John 
to see her. She blushes—another type of overflow or form 
of expression coming from the impression. All strong 
emotions express themselves in the face and body. There 
are slighter forms of physical expression, often uncon¬ 
scious, for nearly all ideas in most persons; although most 
of us try to control our feelings, as we call them, so that 
they will not show. A frank person is one who expresses 
what he thinks and feels in speech. Common courtesy and 
tact demand that there must be some repression, at least 
part of the time. The buyer who shows his every idea and 
feeling is very much at the mercy of salesmen. 

Summary. —To sum up what we have gone over, we may 
say that the mind works only upon impressions found in 
the brain, which are brought into the brain by nerve cur¬ 
rents. These impressions are connected by pathways along 
which the mind moves constantly during our waking hours. 
The presence of the mind in an impression constitutes recall 
of the image of the cause of the impression. In an adult 
brain the pathways are numberless, and cross each other 
in countless points. At each crossing point is offered the 
opportunity o + mental choice. Which direction the brain 
takes depends in most cases upon the possibility of deriving 
pleasure or satisfaction‘from the ideas or thoughts along 
the possible pathways. The satisfaction may be acute 
pleasure, or, more frequently, merely a sense of being right. 
Every impression tends to have some expression when it is 
in the mind. 


42 


CHAPTER V 

HOW INSTINCTS AID IN SELLING 

Differences in individuals. —The mind works the same in 
any brain, but the materials upon which it works differ in 
every individual, because of differences in past experiences 
and differences in ability to see and grasp impressions. The 
difference in content (that is, the impressions in the brain 
upon which the mind works) causes the difference in 
thought, tastes, opinions, etc. 

Instincts the bases of sameness. —The question may natu¬ 
rally arise: if all men differ in mental content (and that is 
admitted), how can any common ground be found? How 
can any two people agree upon anything? How can buyer 
and seller, for example, reach any basis for conducting an 
exchange? The explanation is to be found in another 
phase of psychology—in the study of human instincts. 

What instincts are. —An instinct is an ability, born in 
a person, to do certain things without being taught. All 
living animals have instincts; and in some, as, for example, 
the bees and ants, the instincts are remarkable. Man, as 
well as animals, has a large number of instincts, though 
in many cases they are quite thoroughly covered up by 
habits and by what has been learned. These instincts are 
in many cases guides to the mind in its choice. To do 
otherwise than what instinct demands would frequently 
be painful. We have here a key to likenesses among men. 
Common instincts cause many people to like the same things 
and to agree upon the same things. 


43 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 

If the salesman will begin his selling talk by an appeal 
to a fundamental human instinct, he is almost sure to get 
attention, while to begin with a purely intellectual appeal 
would cause failure unless the customer had had pleasure- 
able experience in the past with something similar to the 
subject of the appeal. 

In some cases, instincts show themselves in man merely 
as tendencies or feelings. Feeling itself is instinctive. Our 
instinct for tone leads us to enjoy good music. Certain ar¬ 
rangements of form or of lines, as, for example, in window 
display, store arrangement, or newspaper advertising, are 
attractive to onlookers, because of the instinct for good 
form, balance, and harmony. Certain color combinations 
seem harmonious to nearly all people because of our inborn 
instinct for these things. 

We give our attention completely and at once to some 
things, while we have to force ourselves to pay attention 
to others. This happens because of the presence of in¬ 
stincts drawing us in one case, and the absence of instincts 
in the others. These facts of human nature are fundamental 
in all business relations, but especially in salesmanship. 

Let us note some of the more specific instincts. 

Possession. —Almost everybody has an instinct of posses¬ 
sion. We can assume that everybody likes to own things. 
If we can find out what they like, we can be quite sure that 
those are the things that they will want to own. 

Hunger and thirst. —Everybody has the instincts of hun¬ 
ger and thirst. If we can but find out what kinds of food 
and drink people have been accustomed to use, and if we 
can have the opportunity of displaying such foods where 
they may be seen, we can feel sure of making sales. 

Clothing and ornament. —There is a common human in¬ 
stinct or desire for clothing, and not only clothing for the 
sake of its usefulness in protecting the body from cold 
and storm, but also clothing because of its esthetic value. In 


44 


HOW INSTINCTS AID IN SELLING 


other words, the instinct for ornament seems to be a double 
one. We can depend on finding it in some form or other in 
nearly every human being. Just what may be considered 
ornament, however, by any people will depend upon what 
their early training has been. We might safely say that 
the instinct for ornament is older and stronger than the in¬ 
stinct for clothing; for among the lower races, such as the 
Australian aborigines and the South American Indians, 
clothing as protection from the elements is almost unknown, 
while the instinct for ornament is well developed. The 
Guiana Indian woman thinks nothing of going abroad in her 
society without a single article of clothing, but she would 
not for a minute think of leaving her hut without red and 
blue paint rings on her cheeks. And, as we study higher 
and higher races of people, we find that the instinct for 
ornament remains strong. 

Collecting. —The hoarding or collecting instincts are very 
common. Some of us have the fad of collecting books; 
others, postcards; others, curios; and others, bric-a-brac; 
The miser is the type of man who has an extraordinary in¬ 
stinct for collecting money. If we can but learn what par¬ 
ticular track this instinct of hoarding or collecting takes 
in any given person, we may be able to predict what he will 
be tempted to buy. 

Hunting. —The hunting instinct is strong, more particu¬ 
larly in men than in women. The pictures in the advertising 
pages just before fishing season showing the sportsman 
wading in the trout streams and struggling with a gamey 
fish, have tremendous power in arousing this instinct. The 
same is true of the advertising of rifle and gun houses in 
the fall before the hunting season begins. 

Constructing. —The constructing instinct is another that 
is common to a great many people. Most of us like to 
build something or other. Notice how many people there 
are that are interested in craftsman work. Women who 


45 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Jlike to spend their time with fancy work are responding 
to this instinct. Children who build houses with their blocks 
are other excellent illustrations. Some furniture houses 
make much in their advertising and in their salesmanship 
of the point that their furniture will require some work 
on the part of the customer before it will be ready to use. 
This is a direct appeal to a customer’s constructive instinct, 
and seems to be a very successful one. There are oppor¬ 
tunities for doing a great amount of business on the basis 
ot this instinct, most of which are yet unworked. 

Companionship. —Nearly every one has the instinct of 
companionship. We do not like to be alone. Our instinct 
for companionship makes us interested in other people, and 
makes us buy the things necessary to keep up our compan¬ 
ionship with others. Clothing, ornament, games, furniture, 
books, magazines, art work, and so on, are closely connected 
with the fundamental instinct of desire for company. 

Curiosity. —There is also the instinct of curiosity. This 
may be said to be the dominating instinct in the shopper 
who comes to a store and carefully examines all of the 
stock even if she does not buy; and yet, it is this instinct 
which underlies the discovery of all sorts of truths, prin¬ 
ciples, inventions, etc. One who is not curious cannot learn. 
Curiosity means open-mindedness. By exciting the curi¬ 
osity of the passers-by, merchants draw much trade. People 
follow a crowd; the explanation is generally human curi¬ 
osity. 

Imitation. —Everybody has an innate desire to be like 
other people or at least like some other people. This is 
the instinct of imitation. Most of the knowledge that we 
have and most of the things that we know how to do were 
gained and learned by imitating some one else. Many things 
we imitate without any consciousness that we are imitating; 
and this is one of the surest signs that imitation is an irf- 
stinct. But from the retail merchant’s standpoint imita- 


HOW INSTINCTS AID IN SELLING 


tion is an instinct that needs attention. It is the thing that 
lies at the bottom of the causes of fashion. It supplies the 
assurance that more than one thing of a kind will be wanted 
by the people, and that what some want will be wanted by 
others. 

Individuality. —Imitation is antagonized by another in¬ 
stinct that we call individuality, which causes us to want 
to be different from other people. But individuality 
works only a part of the time in any person and then usu¬ 
ally upon one thing at a time. Imitation governs all the 
rest of our desires and thoughts. Individuality is another 
important cause at the bottom of fashion changes. 

Miscellaneous instincts. —Then there are the important 
instincts of sex and parentage. The window display that 
shows children’s goods and suggests the satisfaction that 
may come from the using of such goods, must always ap¬ 
peal to the woman whose mother instinct is strong. Be¬ 
sides these there are other common instincts of fear, 
anger, play, pugnacity, emulation, sympathy, modesty, travel 
(wanderlust), etc., all of which are open avenues to the 
mind. 

As already stated, instincts are the things that make us 
all more or less alike. Possession, hunger, ornament, friend¬ 
ship, lover and sweetheart, parent and child, are words 
which stand for things that make the whole world kin. 

Habit. —When the mind has once received a certain set of 
ideas in a given order, it tends to recall them in the same 
order. The explanation for this seems to be that a path¬ 
way has been formed between the brain impressions when 
they were received, and that this pathway is followed by 
the mind in recalling anything. In fact, it may be difficult 
to think of those ideas in any other order; and, after the 
mind has gone over the same ideas a number of times in 
the same way, it becomes even more difficult to change the 
order of thinking. That order becomes a habit of thinking, 


47 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Power of habit. —Suppose that we hear the expression 
“Jones is dishonest,” told in such a manner and by such 
a person that we have no reason to doubt the truth of the 
statement. Our suspicion will be aroused about Jones. 
Suppose that we think this statement over several times by 
ourselves, or hear the same thing from others. The sus¬ 
picion becomes very much deeper and more firmly fixed. 
Later we may meet Jones and find that he is a good con¬ 
versationalist; he may have a good appearance; he may be 
frank looking; he may hold a position of trust among his 
own people; we may have no evidence of his dishonesty 
in any way. He may be perfectly honest, but it will be 
difficult for us to separate these two ideas in our mind, 
“Jones” and “dishonest.” We shall hold our suspicion for 
a long time. The power of habit is exceedingly strong. 

In a number of ways we all know about the power of 
habit. Our hands learn to wrap parcels or tie bundles in 
a certain way, and it becomes difficult to change to another 
way. We use certain expressions in greeting people, and 
these become a habit with us. If we smile when we meet 
our friends the first few times, we are likely to smile when¬ 
ever we meet them. An idea that pleases us is likely to 
please us again. The liking for various foods is a habit. 
When we grow accustomed to anything, we form a habit. 
A customer who has worn a large, wide hat has formed 
a habit of wearing that hat; and, if it suited her, it will 
be somewhat difficult to get her to change to a very much 
smaller one at once. People have habits in their ways of 
buying. Some have formed suspicions that they are being 
overcharged, others that they must' always haggle over the 
price. Some even look upon all salesmen with suspicion. 
Such habits make the customer a hard one to deal with. A 
new salesman must work harder to make good than an 
old one with old customers, because the old customers are 
not in the habit of trading with the new salesman. 


48 


HOW INSTINCTS AID IN SELLING 


Habit and instinct. —A habit may or may not be in accord 
with the natural instincts of the customer. Sometimes a 
habit is forced upon a person against his instincts; so there 
is often a conflict between the two. In some cases the habit 
grows stronger than the instinct. Honesty is such a habit. 
The young child with the instinct of possession takes what¬ 
ever he wants whenever he can do so. He does not have 
any appreciation of the fact that it belongs to others. Later, 
when he learns that he cannot have some things, he may 
try to take them when not watched. This is following nat¬ 
ural instincts. But the ideas of honesty and the wrong of 
taking things that he should not have, are taught to the 
child in several ways, until he gets into the habit of thinking 
of honesty. The temptation to steal comes later, but the 
idea of honesty and the habit of thinking it is so strong 
that the desire to steal is overruled. 

Business and habits. —So far as possible the salesman 
should carry on his business in the ways that habit has fixed 
among his customers, for to upset a habit is always the cause 
of irritation. New salesmen will meet this problem more 
frequently than the more experienced; for the experienced 
salesman will have acquired habits himself in dealing with 
his customers. Experience is of greatest help simply be¬ 
cause it keeps the salesman from doing things that are not 
habitual in the trade. To know how to treat a customer 
is largely a matter of knowing his or her habits. Therefore 
the new salesman should study closely to see what the 
habits of trading of his customers are, in what way they 
want to be waited upon, what kinds of goods they have been 
in the habit of buying, and so on. 

Habit is the result of experience and training. There¬ 
fore every community and every kind of work produces 
habits peculiar to it. Often great differences are found 
among nations—often among provinces or states. City hab¬ 
its are different from country habits. East and West dif- 


49 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


fer. Farmers differ from miners. Both have ways differing 
from those of fishermen. Women may have habits of 
trading quite different from men. To all classes the sales¬ 
man must attempt to sell in the way that suits them best. 

Business must break up habit when it seeks to find a mar¬ 
ket for a new article, or an article of a new quality. It is 
here, where habits are broken and irritation is likely to arise, 
that the salesman’s best work can be accomplished. He en¬ 
courages the change, but allays the irritation consequent 
upon destroying the old habits, and helps to start and build 
up the new ones. 

All successful retail stores are successful because a great 
number of people are in the habit of trading there. “Good 
will,” which is so valuable to any business, is nothing but 
the habit of a great number of people to favor that busi¬ 
ness. It is such habits that the salesman helps his store 
to build among his customers. In fact, a customer usually 
does not pay profits to a store until he has formed the 
habit of coming to the store. The first sale is hardly ever 
a profit maker when one considers the advertising, the dis¬ 
play, and selling expense necessary to get first orders. 
Wholesalers and manufacturers have a saying that it is the 
“repeat orders” that count. The same is true in a retail 
store in most communities. 

Imagination. —We have said nothing thus far about im¬ 
agination and reasoning. Both are but special forms and 
combinations of remembered ideas. What we imagine is 
composed entirely of parts of ideas and of whole ideas al¬ 
ready in the brain. Try for yourself, and see how hard it is 
to think of—to imagine—anything absolutely new or differ¬ 
ent from anything you have ever seen or experienced. If 
you think you have succeeded, just analyze the image in 
your mind, and see if its parts are not made up of parts 
of other old ideas, and if these do not come from real things. 
This explanation gives us a valuable lesson on how so-called 


50 


HOW INSTINCTS AID IN SELLING 


originality is developed. We find a so-called original idea 
is invariably nothing but an ingenious combination of old 
ideas, brought together by one who has the power to re¬ 
call easily and the power to combine. 

Reasoning. —Reasoning is but the comparison of ideas. 
The usual method is either to find some proposition upon 
which we are sure, and then apply that to new or unsure 
matters; or to compare several new ideas for the purpose 
of finding a common likeness which we may call a prin¬ 
ciple. 

Deductive reasoning. —We use the first kind of reasoning 
when we say to ourselves, “All normal mothers want nice 
things for their children. Mrs. Brown will surely want 
nice things for her children.” We all accept the first prop¬ 
osition as correct. You, as a salesman, make your applica¬ 
tion of that proposition to a certain normal mother, Mrs. 
Brown. This reasoning is common in everyday thinking. 
It is but a comparison of the idea of “Mrs. Brown” with 
the idea of “All normal mothers.” This kind of reasoning 
is called deductive. 

Inductive reasoning. —The other kind of reasoning is 
used when some customer comes in and asks for an article 
that is not in stock: followed by a second, and a third, and 
several more customers asking for the same article. You 
compare your experiences with each customer; you recall 
the same or similar ideas received from each one; namely, 
a want for an article not in stock. You reason out the con¬ 
clusion that the article is in strong demand. You use your 
conclusion by having the goods ordered. The conclusion 
was correct if the customers represented classes of people 
and not individual whims, and if the customers were 
real and not store shoppers sent out by some rival store 
to lead you into investing your capital in an unprofitable 
line. 

Both kinds of reasoning are common to all people in 
5i 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


business. Both are subject to error, usually from jump¬ 
ing at conclusions without sufficient comparison. 

The essentials of good imagination and reasoning are a 
good memory and an active mind. The first can be trained, 
as we have seen. The second is the result of mental exer¬ 
cise and good health. 

Summary. —Certain facts should stand out clearly as a 
result of our study thus far, and among these should be the 
following: 

1. Every idea that is to enter the mind from the outside 
must come in through the sense nerves to the brain. Sell¬ 
ing is a process of getting a customer to accept and act 
upon a certain set of ideas; therefore the work of the sales¬ 
man must be to present material that is suitable to the senses 
of the customer and that will cause the ideas desired. 

2. Every impression that enters the brain and reaches the 
mind leaves some kind of mark or indentation in the brain 
tissue that remains there indefinitely. To recall the im¬ 
pression, the mind retraces its way through this mark much 
as a phonograph reproducer traces its way over the indented 
wax cylinder record. The brain tissue is a storehouse of 
records of past impressions, connected by pathways formed 
by the mind in passing from one to another. Every new im¬ 
pression coming into the brain is connected by the mind 
to the older impressions; in fact new ideas can scarcely 
be grasped unless they can be connected to those that have 
already been in the mind. The problem of the salesman is 
to present his ideas to the customer so that the connections 
between the new and the old ideas will be made easily in the 
customer’s mind. To this end it will be of great help to the 
salesman to know something of the past experiences of the 
customer. 

3. The mind of a person travels through the brain and 
nerve tissue from impression to impression at a definite 
rate of speed, which may be different for everybody; 


52 


HOW INSTINCTS AID IN SELLING 


therefore, in the presentation of ideas or impressions to a 
customer, the salesman must be aware that they can have 
little or no effect unless presented at about the same rate of 
speed that the customer’s mind can grasp them, one after 
the other. 

4. Every impression that enters the mind is accompanied 
by some feeling either good or bad, pleasing or painful, 
satisfactory or unsatisfactory. The mind naturally turns 
away from the bad, painful, or unsatisfactory impression, 
and turns towards the good, pleasing, or satisfactory. Fa¬ 
vorable action of the will of the customer can only be ob¬ 
tained by presenting such impressions as will produce good, 
pleasing, or satisfactory feelings; hence, the salesman must 
be tactful and sympathetic as well as clear-cut in his pres¬ 
entation of ideas and in showing his goods. 

5. Whether an idea that enters the mind of a person shall 
be accompanied by pleasing and satisfactory feelings or 
their opposites, depends upon the following: the possibility 
of the ideas being used to bring further satisfaction; pre¬ 
vious experience with similar ideas, and their results; and 
the natural impulses or instincts of the individual. A sales¬ 
man’s presentation appeals if possible to all three—the cus¬ 
tomer’s future satisfaction, his past experience, and his 
natural instincts. 

6. Interest in preoccupation of the mind with ideas or 
impressions that are pleasing or satisfactory to the mind, 
and is caused by the pleasure or satisfaction derived from 
those ideas or impressions. If the interest concerns any ma¬ 
terial object or service that can be purchased and, therefore, 
enjoyed continuously or repeatedly, the interest naturally 
grows into a desire to purchase, or to own, the thing or the 
right to the service. The salesman must seek to interest the 
customer in the facts concerning whatever he has to sell in 
order to excite the desire to purchase or to own that par¬ 
ticular thing. 


53 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


7. Every impression or idea that enters the mind tends 
to express itself in some outward manner. Most of such 
expressions are controlled by the average person, but it is 
upon the interpretation of such expressions as show them¬ 
selves that the salesman judges whether or not he is present¬ 
ing the right kind of impressions or ideas. To read a 
person’s thoughts means simply to interpret what that per¬ 
son is expressing by his action, appearance, speech, etc. 

These seven fundamental facts of psychology lie at the 
bottom of the science of selling. They must be clearly 
understood by every one who wishes to grasp this science. 
With these facts as a basis one can begin to understand the 
reasons for the success of good salesmen, as well as the 
reasons why some selling and advertising methods are suc¬ 
cessful and others are unsuccessful. 


CHAPTER VI 
ATTRACTING ATTENTION 

The salesman’s service. —We can best show the applica¬ 
tion of psychology to selling by first presenting an outline 
of the work that the salesman must do. Among the cus¬ 
tomers who come to a store there are in general, first, 
those who have clearly in mind what they want and who 
come to the store to get it. Secondly, there are those who 
know their wants, but do not know exactly what will supply 
them. For example, a person of this second class may want 
a cold cure, a hammer, a pair of shoes, or a coat; but he 
may have no idea as to what particular kind would serve 
him most satisfactorily. Lastly, there is a class that we 
may call store visitors or shoppers—those drawn in through 
curiosity, or who come in with friends, in neither case in¬ 
tending to purchase anything. 

The first class simply need some one to wait upon them 
expeditiously and accurately. The second class need the 
attention of a salesman who can properly present the goods 
of the store so as to sell what will give the customer the 
best satisfaction. The third class, with which we may also 
include customers who have already purchased all that they 
had in mind to get when they entered the store, require 
real salesmanship. The work of the store in connection 
with this third class of customers is to serve them as fully 
as possible by bringing to their attention desirable goods, 
and, if the attention should ripen into desire to own, to 


55 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


make the sale. In fact, the success of many a store de¬ 
pends almost wholly upon these extra sales, for the ordi¬ 
nary sales resulting from the taking of orders may not in 
themselves bring in enough profit to pay the expenses of 
running the business. If done rightly (psychologically), 
as we shall show, customers will feel pleased, even com¬ 
plimented, at this service. At its best, this service antici¬ 
pates the customer’s wants before they have been ex¬ 
pressed. This saves his thought and energy which he 
might afterwards expend in coming to the conclusion to 
get the goods, if the salesman did not put the goods before 
him now and convince him that he wanted them. By means 
of this service plus the help of advertising, which is but a 
special form of salesmanship, people learn the use of new 
foods, different makes in shoes and garments, late inventions 
in tools, and so on. 

We shall give most of our attention to the kind of sales¬ 
manship required by the third class—those who have not 
made up their minds to buy. 

The conduct of a sale. —Suppose a lady enters your de¬ 
partment (more than eighty per cent, of the customers in the 
retail trade are women) and comes down the aisle slowly 
without any apparent objective point in mind. You ap¬ 
proach her, and make inquiry as to how you may be of 
service to her. She replies that she is not interested par¬ 
ticularly in anything, and that she is just looking around, 
or that she came in with some friend, or that she is wait¬ 
ing for some one. It has become a fixed custom in this 
country to give people the privilege of going about in a 
store without buying. This was something unheard of 
in England until very recently. You are a skillful, we shall 
say, a scientific salesman. You accept the visitor’s expla¬ 
nation, and extend the hearty invitation, which is a policy of 
your house, to make herself at home. You engage her in 
conversation upon some point that you are sure will in- 

56 


ATTRACTING ATTENTION 


terest her, and artfully call her attention to some article 
of new design, with which, you judge, she may not be 
familiar, but with which you think she might be pleased. 
She examines the article first carelessly, but later, under 
the direction of the right suggestive selling talk, with 
marked signs of interest. You note that she looks for the 
price mark or inquires the price; and you begin to feel that 
things are coming out fairly well. But she objects to the 
price. You answer with arguments, showing the quality 
and pointing out that the price is really not too high; and 
in the meantime give her added reasons for ownership, and 
give her opportunity to gain impressions from the article 
through her eyes and hands. She wavers a moment; you 
add another clinching fact; and she buys the article. This 
is real salesmanship—not to sell people what they do not 
want, but to anticipate their wants and sell them now what 
they really need, what they will be highly satisfied with, 
and what they will probably purchase elsewhere later on 
if you do not sell them now. 

The customer’s state of mind. —Let us consider what 
took place psychologically in this sale. The lady who came 
into your department possessed a mind, a brain, and nerv¬ 
ous system, with its way of working very similar to yours. 
But the content, the ideas recorded in her brain, were prob¬ 
ably very different from yours. Her mind traversed the 
pathways and impressions which had been formed in her 
brain by her past experiences, including everything -she had 
ever heard, seen, and done, while your mind traveled along 
the pathways formed in your brain. But since you are 
a salesman, you are constantly turning your mind in the di¬ 
rection of other people’s minds so that you may learn what 
other people think and how they think it. 

Getting the customer’s attention. —The customer was 
thinking her own thoughts, and was interested only in these, 
and not in yours. As a salesman, it was your work to 


5 £ 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


break in on her path of thinking and introduce some im¬ 
pression that would cause her to follow the line of thought 
that you wanted her to follow. In othei words, you had 
to get her attention. This was the first step in the sale. 

In the case of the customer who comes into the store 
knowing just what she wants, attention is already present. 
The mind is already engaged in a line of thought which 
should result in that final idea that every salesman wants 
the customer to express: viz., “Yes, I will take the 
goods.” 

Interest. —In the case of the uncertain customer, however, 
you had to get the attention. But more than that was neces¬ 
sary. She might have given the object only a moment’s 
notice, and then allowed her mind to retrace its old track; 
so you immediately began to hold her attention to the ar¬ 
ticle by telling her of its qualities and uses. You presented 
those first which in your estimation would be accepted 
favorably. You were very careful to avoid antagonizing 
her in any way. You watched her eyes and face intently to 
see whether she was becoming pleased or bored by what 
you were telling. You watched her eyes to see what she 
seemed interested in seeing, and you told her about those 
things in a plain, sensible way. Once or twice you may 
have said things which caused her face to cloud a little. 
You noted it quickly and began talking on other points at 
once. As ordinarily expressed, you were tactful. Gradu¬ 
ally her eyes and face brightened. Finally you noted a 
real look of interest. This was the second step in the 
sale. 

Increasing interest. —The customer began now to ask 
questions about the article. Her mind was working in the 
path that you wanted it to work in. Henceforth it was 
your task to keep her in this line of thought until the sale 
could be made. So whenever her mind started to run oft on 
some tangent, you brought it back to the goods; and when 

58 


ATTRACTING ATTENTION 


she offered some objection to the goods, you answered the 
objections so fully and fairly that she became satisfied and 
more deeply interested. 

Desire and action. —With no overpowering objections 
left, her interest naturally became strong desire. Her in¬ 
stinct of possession had been set to work. This you guided 
into expression and action by stating in a few words some 
of the article’s strongest points, and possibly, by repeating 
in different form those arguments that seemed to have great¬ 
est weight during the early part of the sale. Her mind 
resolved to possess, and the sale was made. 

The steps in a sale. —There were, then, four distinct 
psychological steps or stages in this sale. These were: first, 
getting the attention of the customer; second, intensifying 
the attention into interest in the article; third, ripening the 
interest into desire; and fourth, causing the desire to assert 
itself by inducing the customer to make the decision to 
become owner. These steps are found in every complete 
sale. In the case of the first class of store visitors, re¬ 
ferred to on a previous page, some external force, such as 
the store advertising in the newspapers or circulars, or some 
other person may have created the attention, the interest, and 
even the desire to buy. All that is left for the store and 
its salesmen to do is to give the customer what she wants 
and to receive her money or promise to pay. In the second 
class of customers, there is a general interest and readiness 
to give attention upon being shown the goods. In their 
case, too, interest and attention may have been partly built 
up by some means before the customer entered the store. 
Possibly a single line of advertising, such as “Are you 
going to paint your house this year?” suggested the line 
of thought that resulted in the call of the customer at the 
store to ask to see samples of paint. Possibly a window dis¬ 
play caught her attention and brought her in. 

In some cases the transition from one step in the sale to 


59 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


the next is a process requiring but a moment’s time; in 
others, it takes not only much time, but, also, great force 
of argument. Life insurance salesmen often have prospects 
whose attention and interest have been aroused, and who 
even have a strong desire for the protection offered, but 
who simply hesitate for months before making the decision. 
These transitions between steps, this “making up one’s 
mind,” is one of the most interesting studies of human 
nature in the world. There is no place where it can be stud¬ 
ied so well as from back of the store counter. 

Practical illustrations. —Let us now consider some of the 
best store practice in the light of our study. We shall find 
that a number of excellent means have been discovered 
and devised to assist in getting the customer through each 
step in the sale, from attracting his attention to obtaining 
his decision. Only a few methods can be given, but enough 
must be enumerated to show the salesman just how he can 
go on in his study of the subject with special reference 
to his own selling field. Naturally the same sort of de¬ 
vices for getting interest will not work equally well with all 
sorts of customers, or in all sorts of retailing. Our brief 
study of psychology should have made clear at least one 
thing, and that is the absolute necessity of treating each 
customer, let us not say, differently, but rather, in the way 
most suited to him. This means that we must make 
changes in our selling plans, not merely for the sake of the 
changes, but for the purpose of fitting them to the individ¬ 
ual customer. 

Advertising. —Every up-to-date .store attempts to attract 
the attention of possible customers in a number of ways. 
In doing this the work of salesmanship is extended beyond 
the bounds of individual selling. Advertising is, of course, 
the principal means by which a store seeks to get the at¬ 
tention of the public to what it has to offer. It may be 
said that the chief end of advertising is to attract attention, 


60 


ATTRACTING ATTENTION 


although the best advertising carries many people over from 
the state of momentary attention into interest, desire, and 
even decision to purchase. Mail-order houses depend upon 
advertising alone to sell their goods. This is advertising 
raised to the highest power. If we study mail-order adver¬ 
tising, we shall see that the advertisements are intended to 
carry the possible customer through the entire four stages. 
In many cases this is very cleverly and most excellently done. 
The mail-order advertising man must be an expert in his 
profession. He must be a salesman with a full knowledge 
of how sales are made. It will pay any salesman who de¬ 
sires to study the methods of selling talk used by others, 
to read carefully the advertising done by these experts. 
Average retail advertising, however, is considered fairly 
good if it attracts the attention and arouses interest, and 
leaves to the store and its salesmen the work of getting the 
customer’s mind through the other two stages of a sale. 

Window display. —The store window display is another 
very powerful factor in attracting attention. There are 
few people who can say that they have not been stopped 
by window displays. All have had the experience of being 
arrested for several moments, even if they were in a hurry. 
Many of these persons were afterwards drawn by interest 
into the store to see the goods, and to purchase. The man¬ 
ager who does not have effective displays prepared for 
his windows is only a storekeeper, not a merchant or a 
salesman. 

Store display. —Another means of getting the attention 
is by proper inside store displays. You cannot tell all 
about all of your goods in expensive newspaper space, nor 
even in catalogs; nor can you put all of your goods in the 
windows. There are many articles that will be purchased 
by the customer after coming into the store if she is re¬ 
minded that they are for sale by having the goods attrac¬ 
tively displayed where they can be seen. 


61 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Advertising an aid to selling. —As advertising, window 
dressing, and store display are subjects of such importance 
that they should be treated of separately and in detail, no 
further mention of them will be made at this point except 
to indicate their purposes in the business, and to show that 
they are intended as aids to the salesmen; they capture the 
attention, at least, and arouse the interest, if possible, of 
many more persons than the salesman in his department 
could ever reach with his own efforts alone. The sales¬ 
man’s work is simplified by the fact that often much of the 
real selling has already taken place before the customer 
faces him. On the other hand, more intelligent salesman¬ 
ship is now required than ever before, since not only must 
the salesman carry out his own complete sales, but he must 
also know how to co-operate in the best way with, and make 
use of, the services of these special aids in salesmanship. 
This calls for a knowledge of principles of window-trim¬ 
ming and advertising, although ability in the arts of win¬ 
dow-trimming and advertising is not essential for the sales¬ 
man. 

How to get attention. —Let us consider the means, for 
which the salesman is responsible, and which he has at hand, 
to get the attention of the customer who has come into his 
store. There is, first of all, the salesman himself. We 
have already considered certain attributes which he, in 
common with other business men, should possess. Here 
let us consider those which apply particularly to sales¬ 
manship. 

Salesman’s appearance. —In getting the favorable atten¬ 
tion of most customers, the salesman’s appearance counts 
for a great deal. A good form or physique, well balanced, 
its action well under control, is always pleasing; and the 
opposite is often displeasing. Shuffling feet, stooping 
shoulders, hanging head, drooping mouth, lax motions and 
positions, while probably not consciously distasteful to 


62 


ATTRACTING ATTENTION 


many, are nevertheless not pleasing, and are positively dis¬ 
tracting to a few. Every salesman should and can cultivate 
good physical bearing. He needs to be erect (not so erect 
as to bend backward), with head up so that the eye can look 
out on a level without turning up; with firm, quick, elastic 
step. He needs a deep, full chest not only for the sake of ap¬ 
pearance, but for the sake of health as well. People with 
large, deep breathing capacity resist disease and do not tire 
easily. If a year of military service can straighten out most 
men so that they will have most of these qualities, any indi¬ 
vidual can do the same thing for himself by simply making 
up his mind, and keeping it made up, to practice for im¬ 
provement in the characteristics in which he is deficient. 
You can afford to build up good physique and good physical 
bearing. It will pay you well. 

Cleanliness. —The salesman must be scrupulous as to 
cleanliness. Better too much of this, by far, than too little. 
This is a principle that should be applied generally to per¬ 
son, hair, nails, nose, teeth, linen, clothing, shoes, stock, 
counters, fixtures, floors, and the entire store building. It 
may be said that many customers do not care about these 
things. But some do. And hardly any of the careless ones 
will be anything but pleased to see the immaculately clean 
store, goods, and salesmen. Whatever the changes in fash¬ 
ions, there never will come a vogue in musty smell, dust-dye, 
and fly polka-dot designs. The policy of the store and its 
salespeople in these respects should be to aim to keep the 
store in the condition that will be satisfying to the most care¬ 
ful, exacting housekeeper in the city. If you can get and 
hold her favorable attention, so that she will not be ever 
so gently shocked by any uncleanliness, you can be sure 
that you are not going to have trouble upon this point with 
anyone else. 

What customers do not like. —There are a number of 
other points the psychology of which needs to be studied 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


by the salesman. Many people do not like to see gum 
chewing or tobacco chewing, nor do they like tobacco smoke. 
The salesman who is addicted to these things will likely 
lose the customer who dislikes them. Bad breath is fatal 
to a salesman’s success. Do not guess about your breath. 
Get some frank friend to tell you if your breath is all right. 
If bad, cure it. This can be done; your selling will improve, 
and so will your health. Customers have come away from 
some stores, vowing that they would never go there again, 
and their reason when finally discovered was that so many 
saleswomen on every side were constantly “fixing” their 
hair. One man customer in such a store said he felt as if 
he ought to retire from the room, as it was evidently a 
ladies’ dressing-room. Any special mannerisms of action 
or speech are dangerous, and make it hard to get the right 
kind of attention. 

Unfavorable attention. —The aim of selling is to get 
favorable attention for the goods, and not for anything 
else. The overdressed salesman, striking jewelry, unusual 
coiffure, all get attention, but the attention all goes to the 
person and not to the goods. A salesman is not trying 
to sell himself. His appearance, dress, manner, and even 
his voice and speech should be such as to be unconsciously 
pleasing to the customer, but to attract no mental comment 
whatever. 

Business harmony. —The business of the store is to sell 
goods, and everything in the store must be in keeping with 
this aim. The more thoroughly the surroundings and the 
salesmanship harmonize and blend with the impressions 
made by the goods, the better it is for the business. The 
most successful salesmen are those who most fully live up 
to this principle. You advertise, you appeal, you suggest, 
you make statements, but always about your goods, and not 
about yourself. 

Dress, —In keeping with these principles the salesman 

64 


ATTRACTING ATTENTION 


needs to be well dressed for his work. Dress should be 
neat, in good order, and becoming. In many establishments 
dress has become a vital problem, and one that is often 
difficult to handle. Most large department stores require 
their saleswomen to dress in a uniform, of, say, black 
skirt and black shirtwaist with white neckwear during the 
six colder months of the year, and black skirt and white 
shirtwaist during the six warmer months. This, it has been 
found, is the most satisfactory solution of the problem, 
although there is just a single item of undesirability about 
this, and that is the likelihood of the uniform’s drawing 
some attention to itself. There are few salesladies who do 
not look becoming in black and white, if the costume is 
neatly made. Its sensibleness appeals to nearly everyone. 
A business should look prosperous, and so should its sales' 
people. 

Voice and speech. —As already suggested, the voice and 
speech of a salesman are highly important. A good voice 
may be cultivated by anyone who has not the handi¬ 
cap of physical defects in his vocal organs. A sales¬ 
man should try to pitch his voice in an easy speaking, natu¬ 
ral, average key, and to speak very clearly and distinctly, 
but without any mannerisms or effort. If you cannot get 
some capable, frank friend to tell you of your faults of 
speech, just shut yourself into a room alone. Begin talk¬ 
ing to yourself in various keys, and in different ways, and 
try to make permanent the keys and ways that seem best 
to you. 

It is a failing to permit business language to grow so 
flat and confused that a stranger has difficulty in under¬ 
standing it. Look out for such little things; avoid slang; 
use the best English you can; make your words simple, 
plain, and short. Know what you want to say before 
you say it, and then say that and no more. Never speak 
affectedly like an actor or actress. Never act. Be real. 

65 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Selling is real. Your desire to sell should be real. Be 
in earnest. These are good rules, which every salesman 
should make a part of himself. 

Instinctive attention. —In continuing the study of the 
best conditions for obtaining a customer’s attention, we may 
note that there are certain things that attract the attention 
of most people instinctively. In the previous section we 
described some of the instincts briefly. Appeals made to in¬ 
stincts usually get attention. Things in motion are much 
more likely to attract attention than things that are still, 
and living things have more attraction than inanimate ob¬ 
jects. In a similar way, certain color combinations and form 
arrangements are more successful in catching the eye than 
others. What these are we shall consider under the sub¬ 
jects of advertising and window and store display. 

The salesman’s approach.—In regard to the approach 
that the salesman makes to the visitor, it is clear that he 
should walk briskly forward to meet her. That action will 
draw attention, and if appearance and manner are not ob¬ 
jectionable, the possible customer will not only be read)- 
to listen but also to be open-minded to any suggestion the 
salesman may have to offer; that is to say, she will be in an 
expectant attitude. 

Salesman’s manner. —Now, if to a good appearance the 
salesman adds a pleasing manner, the first impression— 
that most valuable of items—will be good. Some sales¬ 
people greet the customer with a smile. That is well, if the 
smile is real, and grows out of a pleasure that the sales¬ 
man feels in having the opportunity to serve a customer. 
A slight smile at greeting gives the impression that you are 
glad to see the customer. Cultivate it, but don’t grin. 

Salesman’s eyes. —The salesman’s eyes should express in¬ 
telligent interest in the customer. A stare expresses curi¬ 
osity but not interest. Do not stare. Any salesman who 


66 


ATTRACTING ATTENTION 


is really anxious to serve the customer will show such desire 
by a live expression. An expression of willingness to serve 
warms the heart of most customers, where a stare chills. 
Dull eyes do not sell goods. 

Where there are several salesmen at liberty, only one 
should pay any attention to the customer, and that one 
should be the one who is to serve her. It is disconcerting 
to come into a store and to see several pairs of eyes, par¬ 
ticularly salespeople’s eyes, turned toward you. To have 
more than one salesman trying to sell a customer is likely 
to impress the customer with the idea that the store is too 
eager to get her money. 

It has been the experience of everyone to go into a store 
for certain goods, and to be met by some “order-taker” with 
a languid look in his eye and with all the indications of be¬ 
ing bored. This sort of thing is enjoyed by none. When 
met by a bored salesman, some people do not even buy 
what they came in for; many others buy only what they 
want as quickly as they can and make for the door; and 
some never come back. 

Forms of address. —Stereotyped forms are bad in dealing 
with human material, but none are worse than the open¬ 
ing expression frequently used by salesmen. What one 
usually hears is, “Something?” “What do you want?” 
“Do you want something?” “What will it be?” “Do 
you wish to be waited on ?” and so on, in various tired, list¬ 
less tones. Much better forms of address, and entirely 
proper under all circumstances, are the following: 

“In what way may I serve you, Madam?” 

“May I help you, Sir, to find what you want?” 

“May I assist you in some way?” 

“What may I show you to-day?” 

“Is there anything that I can show you?” 

Do not memorize these forms, but study the spirit which 
they express. Catch that spirit, and then express it in 

67 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


your own way, but be careful to observe the best polite 
usages as to form. As an example of usage—“Madam” is 
better form than “Lady”; “Sir” is better form than “Mis¬ 
ter.” Study the meaning of your expressions from all pos¬ 
sible points of view. Study your methods of saying the 
words, and then follow in practice that which seems best 
and that which seems to work best. 

Know the names of customers. —If a salesman knows the 
name of the customer, a warm friendly salutation in which 
the name is used is almost a certain means of getting the 
customer’s full attention. What you have to offer next 
will get a hearing. Whatever your position, in however 
large or small a city, it is well to begin at once to remem¬ 
ber the names of people so that you may know them when 
they call at your store. The salesman who knows many 
people is worth much more than one who does not—other 
things being equal. 

What to do next. —What to do after the opening ad¬ 
dress will depend entirely upon what course the customer 
takes. If she is interested in any article, she will prob¬ 
ably mention it. You can at once show her what she 
wants to see, or direct her to the place where it can be 
seen. If the goods are not in your department, and you 
find it impossible to go with the customer to find them, 
your directions should be very carefully and fully made. 
This is an opportunity to make a good impression upon 
the customer. 

Giving directions —It must be remembered that the cus¬ 
tomer may not know anything about store departments or 
names of parts of the building. Where there are many 
foreign-born people, this problem is indeed real. You will 
find those who do not know what the word “basement” 
means, or what “third story” means. There are still num¬ 
bers of people who know nothing about an elevator. The 
salesman will never take any chances of being misunder- 


68 


ATTRACTING ATTENTION 


stood. He will give clear, intelligent, kindly answers to 
the inquiries made of him. 

Suggestion in getting attention. —After the customer 
has been greeted by the salesman, if she replies that she 
does not care for anything, she should not be urged to buy. 
That would be a form of hold-up. The salesman should 
try a suggestion or two. In the meantime the salesman 
has watched the eyes of the customer, and he remembers 
what caught her eye on either side of the aisle before he 
addressed her. He may offer to get, and to show her, 
some of these objects. Or, he may reason from such evi¬ 
dence as she presents in clothes, fashion, age, amount of 
care depicted in her face, tone of her voice, her speech, and 
other things, what her place in life is, and what might 
appeal to her. From this he might simply contrive to have 
her see goods that probably would be such as she would 
want. If the customer’s look indicated any glow of in¬ 
terest, the salesman might begin a description calculated to 
heighten this interest. The goods presented might sug¬ 
gest to the customer wants that she did not think of be¬ 
fore. They might suggest satisfactions to her of which 
she had never before known. 

Transferring attention. —When you have a customer 
who has just made a purchase, and you desire her attention 
to other goods, a tactful address somewhat as follows might 
be used successfully: “We have just received a new in¬ 
voice of flour, Mrs. A., which is pronounced excellent; and 
we should be pleased if you, whose good bread is so 
famous, would give us your opinion of it.” Or: “We 
have a new line of silks, which we think very pretty and 
cheap. We should be glad to have you look them over and 
tell us what you think of them.” 

The salesman’s guides. —How to get the attention of a 
customer is a problem for the salesman’s ingenuity. In 
most cases, salesmen, even the best of them, stumble toward 

69 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


attention, and then trust to quick use of wits to retreat or 
push on according to the impression made on the customer. 
The customer’s eye, her position, her facial expression* 
what she says, are the guides to the quick and knowing 
eyes and mind of the salesman. A good salesman depends 
for encouragement almost entirely upon such unsolicited ex^ 
pressions. He asks but few questions, and then only those 
that are absolutely necessary. He begins to show goods 
as soon as possible. He certainly does not begin with that 
most untactful question: “What price did you want to 
pay ?” or “How high do you want to go ?” 

Non-attentive customers. —When a customer does not 
give her attention at all, and does not leave, the salesman 
will vary the usual selling talk to try to capture the atten¬ 
tion. There are various ways to do this, all based on psy¬ 
chology. One is to stop talking and to discontinue all move¬ 
ment abruptly. Quiet waiting frequently has the desired 
effect. Sometimes looking the customer squarely in the eye, 
and transferring your look alternately from her eyes to the 
goods will tend to draw her eyes to the part of the goods 
which you are describing. Some salesmen ask for atten¬ 
tion and sometimes get it in that way. This is effective 
only with absent-minded people, however, who do not mean 
to be inattentive. For the mind-wanderer some clever 
trick, unusual expression, or change from the ordinary may 
be needed to bring back her attention to your goods. 


CHAPTER VII 

AROUSING INTEREST, DESIRE, AND DETERMINATION 

Getting customers interested, —After the attention of 
the customer has been obtained, the next step in a sale is 
to transform the attention into warm interest. In other 
words, the salesman desires to center the mind of the 
customer on the article for sale. The salesman wants the 
customer to give careful thought to the impressions that 
he seeks to make. He also desires to make all feeling in 
the customer’s mind regarding these impressions pleasant 
Dr favorable. The attention must be keyed up, and all 
objectionable ideas must be removed as fast as they ap¬ 
pear. 

Methods. —In order to get the customer interested, every 
salesman follows certain psychological principles. He 
makes his appeals to the senses—to hearing by talking, to 
sight by showing the goods, to touch by letting the cus¬ 
tomer handle them, and so on. He appeals to the cus¬ 
tomer’s imagination by leading her to think how the goods 
will look in use, how they will wear, how they will be 
appreciated by others, how effective and how useful they 
will be; and he appeals to her reason by having her hold 
and compare both the ideas of quality and of price in mind 
at the same time, and by the tactful dislodging of any objec¬ 
tions that may arise. He follows one idea with another so 
timed as to approximate the rate at which her mind moves 
from idea to idea—say from one-half of a second to three 


7 1 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


seconds for each idea. He is careful that each idea is made 
simple, clear-cut, easy for her to get, and deeply impressed, 
before going to the next. 

Tact. —He continues to watch her eyes and facial expres¬ 
sions for tendencies of dislike or displeasure. He shifts 
his selling talk in accordance with what he learns in this 
way. He tries to take her point of view, to select from his 
goods what will give her the most satisfaction. He is more 
anxious to please her than he is to sell his goods. But he 
hopes to have her pleased with his goods. 

Get customer to say “yes.” —To make sure that he is 
on the right track the salesman invites the customer to 
express her opinion of the goods, but he also endeavors to 
present goods and arguments that will bring favorable ex¬ 
pressions. Some salesmen try to get their customers into 
what we may call a “yes-saying” attitude of mind. They 
start in by making remarks that they are sure will bring 
an affirmative response, a “yes,” or an affirmative nod of 
the head. These are followed by other remarks more 
directly related to qualities of the goods, and all eliciting 
“yes” from the customer. The customer thus gets into a 
favorable, affirmative state of mind. This is nearly always 
pleasurable, and.the final decision to buy comes much more 
easily than when the customer has been given the chance, 
if not the suggestion, to make objections and negations 
about the goods. When these have entered the mind, they 
also make impressions, and they are likely to stay there in 
modified form, even if completely answered by the logic of 
the salesman. The customer is never so sure that the goods 
are the best for her as when she has never had a thought 
of any undesirability about the goods before the sale was 
closed. Anyone who will try this will readily see that after 
he has said “yes,” has thought and has given it emphatic 
physical expression, he does not readily change right about 
and take a negative attitude. 


72 


INTEREST, DESIRE, AND DETERMINATION 


Anticipate objections. —The salesman answers as many 
objections as possible before they are made. He does so 
in this way: he states the qualities and uses of the goods so 
clearly and so completely as to cover the objection if made , 
but he does not suggest any thought of the objection itself. 
He prevents the objection from being raised, by the fullness 
of his descriptions. If objections are raised by the cus¬ 
tomer, he answers them fully and frankly. He does not 
beat about the bush in this, for to do so would arouse 
suspicion as to his intent to be perfectly square. 

Frankness. —A salesman must tell the truth. If an em¬ 
ployer expects him to lie, he owes it to himself to find work 
elsewhere. A salesman should always be frank, but 
this does not mean that he should describe his goods as 
follows: 

“Here is a piece of goods that is so coarse that you can 
shoot peas through if, and all cotton at that, although it is 
marked half wool. It will fade at the first wearing. How 
many yards shall I tear off for you ?” 

Nor should he follow the example of the grocery clerk, 
who said to his employer in the presence of a customer who 
had bought some prunes: “You must be glad to sell another 
pound of those wormy old prunes. They’ll soon be all 
gone.” 

These cases represent frankness that is destructive. The 
real salesman could admit all the bad qualities of the cloth 
described above, but if the description were accompanied by 
a statement of the purposes or uses of the cloth, he might 
still make a sale when offering the goods to the right person, 
the one for whom the goods were made. 

The second illustration is a type of what may be called 
brutal frankness. Both grocer and his clerk were in the 
wrong. There is a maxim among business men—“Don’t 
knock.” It has psychological significance. The affirmative 
side, and not the negative, is the one that needs attention. 


73 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Influence of knowledge. —In holding and building up the 
interest of the customer, it is clear that the salesman who 
knows his goods thoroughly and speaks with the authority 
of one who knows, has a great advantage over the one 
who is not so thoroughly informed. Indecision on a sales¬ 
man’s part is always likely to break a favorable chain of 
thought in the customer’s mind. The indecision of the 
salesman is communicated to the customer, and the sale is 
lost. All people listen attentively and respectfully to the 
recognized authority, even if they do not need what he 
has to offer. It pays to build up a reputation for expert 
knowledge as well as for absolutely square dealing in 
business. 

Fixing the attention. —The salesman attempts to fix his 
conditions so as to eliminate all distractions that are likely 
to claim any of the customer’s attention. Wherever and 
whenever possible he asks her to sit down. None of the 
other salesmen in the vicinity are supposed to have any 
interest in the transaction whatever. Disagreeable noises, 
smoke, dust, and odor all detract from the possibility of 
making sales. Above all, the salesman engages the cus¬ 
tomer’s entire attention by talking directly to her, in a clear 
tone of voice, but just loud enough to be heard distinctly 
by the customer. In return, he pays the closest attention to 
what she says. He yields to and appreciates her point of 
view. He is sympathetic, and he never dictates. What he 
says as an authority is not stated in the voice of a military 
commander. He relies upon the importance of his ideas 
to give the right impression, rather than upon importance 
in tone and manner of speech. He gives his judgment only 
when it is asked for. The regular selling talk is made up 
of facts, with the assumption that the customer will judge 
for herself. But with all his quietness of voice and manner, 
the real salesman is more anxious to please than to sell, and 
for that reason he is successful in selling. 


74 


INTEREST, DESIRE, AND DETERMINATION 


Humor not permissible. —Joking, funny stories, humor 
of any kind is dangerous in selling. Business is serious, 
and when people are considering parting with their good, 
hard-earned dollars, they are usually not in the mood to 
be joked with, even though they joke and smile themselves. 
The professional salesman has a dignity which, though it 
leads him to appreciate the humor brought in by the cus¬ 
tomer, does not lead him into the mistake of displaying any 
of his own amateurish attempts in that direction. The im¬ 
pressions of truth, quality, and efficiency are best conveyed 
by earnest, interested speech and appearance. Then, and 
then only, the words ring true. 

Illustration. —Before passing to some more concrete illus¬ 
trations of the methods of interesting customers, let us 
give a moment’s attention to a possible situation. The fol¬ 
lowing is copied from some recent advertising. It illus¬ 
trates excellent work on the part of the saleswoman in 
getting attention not only for the article wanted by the 
customer, but also for other things that she had planned to 
buy elsewhere. It also shows great ability in holding the 
customer’s interest: 

Clerk: “Good morning, Mrs. Henderson; you are bright 
and early. What time did you leave home?” 

Mrs. PI.: “We started at 5 o’clock; had a load of onions 
and got them shipped on the 7 o’clock freight.” 

Clerk: “What can I do for you this morning?” 

Mrs. H.: “Oh! I don’t know. I need a pair of kid 
gloves, and some French concern sent me a little book about 
the Simmons LaForce Kid Gloves, and it said that you sold 
them. I want to match this sample.” 

Clerk: “Oh, yes! What size?” 

Mrs. H.: “Size 6 \. I always like my gloves com¬ 
fortable.” 

Clerk: “I see; the LaForce, being French kid and made 

75 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


in France, are sized in French sizes, so I’ll measure your 
hand and see what will fit you.” 

Mrs. H.: “That’s all right, but I know my size.” 

Clerk (measuring her hand): “Yes! Your number is 
D, and I’ll put them on for you.” 

Mrs. H.: “Well, I’m in a great hurry, and have to meet 
my husband, so I’ll not bother you; I can put ’em on just 
as well at home. I don’t want to wear ’em to-day.” 

Clerk: “Oh, it won’t take long; and you know we war¬ 
rant them when they are tried on here, but we dont guarantee 
kid gloves unless fitted; besides, I haven’t seen you in a 
long time, and want to have a minute’s visit with you.” 
(Clerk all the time being busy stretching and powdering the 
gloves.) 

Mrs. H.: “How long will it take?” 

Clerk: “Not over four minutes. By the way, what else 
have you on your list to buy to-day?” 

Mrs. H.: “Oh, dear! Lots of things, but all I need here 
is this pair of gloves.” 

Clerk: “Perhaps I can help you. Aren’t you going to 
need a cloak this fall?” 

Mrs. H.: “Yes. I’ve just got to get one; but I got a 
card from Brown’s with some samples of cloth, and I 
thought I’d go over there and look at ’em—they have one 
that, from the picture and sample, suits me.” 

Clerk: “At what price?” 

Mrs. H.: “$12.50.” 

Clerk: “Well, while you are here, look at ours at $10.50. 
I think it will suit you as well. I’ll show it to you in a 
minute, or ask Mr. Jones to. You know we want your 
trade, and will do as well as anyone, or better,” etc. (By 
this time clerk is fitting the gloves.) 

In this illustration, the saleswoman’s beginning is splen¬ 
did. She knows the customer’s name and many other 
things about her, or she could not be successful in what 

76 


INTEREST, DESIRE, AND DETERMINATION 


follows. It will be noted there is a struggle all the way 
through, due to preconceived notions held by the customer, 
which, in their turn, had been built up by the advertising 
of a competitor. Most salespeople would have been flus¬ 
tered at the customer’s remark that she was in a hurry to 
meet her husband. Not so with this one. Note how tact¬ 
fully she gets the customer to try on the size that fits her 
best. The size she asked for might have been entirely too 
small. And while the saleswoman is trying on the glove, 
the opportunity to sell other goods is improved. Notice 
the appeal to the instinct of saving or economy by men¬ 
tioning a lower priced coat than the one offered by the 
competitor. No comparisons are made by the saleswoman; 
comparisons are made readily enough by the customer. 
Another point is illustrated, and that is the saleswoman’s 
knowledge not only of her own line, but also of the stock 
of the house—in this particular case, the price of coats. 
This is retail selling of a high grade, and this saleswoman 
and every other who can do as well deserves high position 
and good salary. She earns both. 

Impressions. —Observe the practice of good salesmen in 
their efforts to get customers interested. Most good sales¬ 
men get the article into the hands of the possible customer 
as soon as possible, and then make suggestions to induce 
the customer to feel the texture, weight, or other qualities. 
People differ in the ways in which they get their strongest 
impressions, Some are called eye-minded, which means that 
they get their clearest and best impressions through sight; 
others are ear-minded; and still others get their strongest 
impressions through touch or handling. All who are not 
defective get impressions through all three ways. But if a 
salesman should encounter a customer whose best impres¬ 
sions came through touch, and if he should fail to have the 
customer handle the goods, the chances are that he would 
lose the sale. The mail-order advertiser recognizes this. 


77 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


and makes use of the principle of suggestion. He describes 
how the article feels and how it works so that the customer 
can clearly imagine these things. The lesson is obvious, 
and has already been pointed out. Salesmanship will take 
no chances, but will make its appeal through all possible 
senses. Many a grocer could reap a harvest from judicious 
sampling of ready-to-eat foods, teas, coffees, condiments, 
etc. The principle is capable of successful application in a 
great many more ways than have yet been tried. 

Naming price. —The question of when the price should 
be named is sometimes raised. There is much reason for 
the following common practice. Whenever the customer 
asks the price, tell it at once, without hesitation, just as you 
would answer any of her other questions; otherwise men¬ 
tion the price only after you have described the qualities 
of the goods fully. 

There is great danger in mentioning to the customer the 
cost of the goods to the merchant. Any hint in this direc¬ 
tion sets the mind of the customer off on a very undesirable 
as well as irrelevant path, so far as the store and the 
sale are concerned. There need be no stated relation be¬ 
tween the cost of the goods and the selling price. If 
asked about these matters, the salesman can always re¬ 
spond truly that there is a rule against speaking upon this 
point. 

Patience with customers. —A salesman should never lose 
his temper. But it sometimes happens in the case of even 
the best salesman that a customer tries his patience almost 
to the breaking point; or there may be some element in 
the personality of the customer which strongly antagonizes 
the salesman. To a good salesman this will happen very 
rarely. It seems that the best thing to do under such cir¬ 
cumstances is to talk less and to show more goods. When 
talking, one’s inner feelings are likely to be made evident, 
but by keeping quiet and exercising self-control, antagonism 

78 


INTEREST, DESIRE, AND DETERMINATION 

may not become evident, and the sale may be carried out 
successfully. 

Turning over the customer. —In case it seems for any 
reason that the salesman cannot make the sale, there should 
be a well understood arrangement whereby the customer 
may be turned over to some other salesman. This “turning 
over a customer” can be made a fine art. In shoe stores, 
the salesman, on failing to sell after trying his best, intro¬ 
duces to the customer, by name, “the head of the depart¬ 
ment,” “the manager,” “member of the firm,” or “the pro¬ 
prietor.” The effect is usually good. The customer feels 
complimented at the desire of the store people to serve her, 
and the sale is likely to be made if the store has suitable 
goods. The same or similar plans can be made effective in 
all sorts of retail stores. Some such plans are a part, or 
should be, of every store organization. 

Psychology of interest. —When our interest in a thing 
becomes strong, we instinctively want to possess it—to make 
it our own. This is true for all people; hence we have 
here an effective general principle growing out of human 
instincts and applicable to the business of selling. If, now, 
we consider the power of the individual’s demand for what 
he feels necessary for his existence, his comfort, and his 
happiness, we have the basic reason for buying. The sales¬ 
man sells when, with his assistance, his goods have aroused 
the feeling of interest in the customer to such a point as to 
cause the customer to decide to own them. 

When we analyze the matter carefully, we find that a 
person is hardly ever interested in anything that does not 
make an appeal to his sense of self-preservation, his per¬ 
sonal comfort, his satisfaction, or his pleasure. Interest is 
almost always selfish. This is as it should be. It is a law 
of nature. The interest one has in other people ministers 
to one’s satisfaction or pleasure, or it would not exist at all. 
A mother’s instinct makes her interested in her child. Can 


79 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


we think of a mother not getting any satisfaction out of 
this interest? This interest in a normal mother is her 
greatest satisfaction, often the most acute pleasure. If she 
loses satisfaction and pleasure in the child, you may be sure 
that her interest is also breaking down, as are, too, the 
powerful instincts of motherhood. The point we are to 
draw from this is that, to get persons interested, you must 
give them ideas that they will want to make a part of them¬ 
selves, that they will want to call their own. So in selling 
goods, you will get people interested in goods when they 
see clearly how much they need them, and how much the 
goods will contribute to their living, safety, comfort, and 
happiness. And, since human satisfaction is to a great 
extent the result of gratifying the blind cravings of the 
instincts, it rests with the salesman to carry on his sales¬ 
manship so as to appeal to the prospective customer through 
his instincts, and to offer the kinds of goods that will satisfy 
those instincts. That appeal must be personal. The good 
that certain articles have brought to others is absolutely 
nothing to me unless you can show that the same good will 
come to me. Your goods must be such as to satisfy my 
needs, and you, as salesman, must show that they will. 


CHAPTER VIII 
CLOSING THE SALE 

The close of the sale an act of will. —The favorable de¬ 
cision of the customer to buy or to accept the article, the 
service, or the conditions offered by the salesman consti¬ 
tutes the close of the sale. It is an act of will of the cus¬ 
tomer, and as such is the logical ending of a conflict of 
ideas in which the ideas presented by the salesman win 
over all others that arise. 

Varying strength of the will. —It has already been 
pointed out that every idea coming into the mind tends to 
express itself in some way. The mind accepts and acts 
upon the different ideas that enter it with different degrees 
of force, and the expression that tends to follow seems to 
be the result of some sort of overflow or explosion of the 
mind upon the idea. In some cases this is mild, and hard 
to detect, but in others it is violent and obvious. 

The will, in most cases, simply directs the flow of this 
expression, chooses the method, or stops it entirely if some 
other idea of equal or greater force enters the mind. 

If there were no obstructions, every idea that entered 
the mind would cause a decision to do something about it, 
and the expression would surely follow. A person with a 
mind working like this would wave his arms, shout, move, 
sing, work, laugh, and cry in full accord with every idea 
entering his mind and according to the feeling accompany¬ 
ing each. Such a person could not hide his thoughts. He 


8 \ 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


would have to tell every idea. He could not keep any 
thought to himself. Even to think, “I will not tell this,” 
constitutes an obstructive thought, a second thought in the 
mind at the same time. The person whom we have just 
described does not even have this thought. The presence 
of conflicting thoughts stops the expression that would 
naturally follow from every idea. 

Some decision upon every idea. —There must be some 
sort of decision upon every idea, even though it be only 
the mere accepting or rejecting of it. We must decide to 
do something about it. As a matter of fact, we decide not 
to express most of the ideas that come to us. And these 
negative decisions are due to the ideas or feelings that arise 
and obstruct or call a halt to the expression of the idea 
that is being considered. These obstructing ideas or feel¬ 
ings demand attention for themselves and inhibit, as the 
psychologists say, the force of the first idea. 

Whatever the decision upon an idea shall be depends, 
then, entirely upon the result of the conflict between that 
idea and other obstructing ideas. In salesmanship, as well 
as in everything else where minds must be influenced, the 
main thing to be accomplished is to get the necessary idea 
into the mind of the customer and then reinforce it, and 
assist it to come to favorable decision and expression, by 
combating and displacing the obstructing ideas if there are 
any. 

How people decide. —There is a great deal of difference 
among individuals in the way this mental conflict takes 
place. It may range from almost nothing to a most severe 
mental struggle. For convenience of study we may think 
of most people as of two types; namely, the impulsive and 
the reasonable. There are no sharp lines between these 
two classes. There are, of course, the extremes, but most 
people combine characteristics of both types, being impul¬ 
sive at some times and reasonable at others. They may be 


82 


CLOSING THE SALE 


impulsive about some things and reasonable about others. 
Health and physical condition affect the tendency of the 
mind. Experience, habit, and education make an almost 
vital difference. It is well known that most untrained, 
uneducated and inexperienced people are impulsive in their 
decisions, while training, knowledge, and experience make 
for reasonableness, especially in those lines in which the 
training, knowledge, and experience have been gained. 

The impulsive type. —The impulsive type is the kind in 
which every big, clear-cut idea that enters the mind is 
followed by immediate action. Among people with this 
type of mind we find the precipitate, the quick-tempered, 
the dare-devil, the animated, and over-enthusiastic—those 
who are extremely talkative, those who show their every 
emotion. Their minds are occupied with but one idea at 
a time; and because this idea does not with them naturally 
connect itself with many others, their minds easily tire. 
They are constantly seeking new subjects for thought. If 
this characteristic is pronounced, we call them “flighty,” or 
“feather-brained.” 

Sometimes such persons draw their ideas from within, 
sometimes from without. If from within, we call the per¬ 
son “set in his way,” or “strong-headed,” especially if we 
do not see how his motive arises, or if its expressions do 
not fit harmoniously with what seems to us usual and 
best. If the ideas expressed come from without, we say 
that the person is “easily led,” that he “floats with the 
current,” that he “has no mind of his own.” If this char¬ 
acteristic is strong, the person is quite likely to be led by 
the suggestion or by the command of others most of the 
time. 

The reasonable type. —The reasonable type is character¬ 
ized by a longer mental conflict, a calling up of as 
many ideas as possible, related to the one demanding a 
decision, and the weighing of the evidence on both 

83 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


sides. Whichever side seems to be the stronger gets the 
decision. 

There are three ways in which the mind may come to a 
reasonable decision. First, the division may be the result 
of a careful consideration of the evidence on both sides., 
so far as the mind has this evidence. Opposing ideas are 
balanced against each other and canceled wherever possi¬ 
ble. Finally either one side or the other has the advan¬ 
tage in weight or importance of evidence, or perhaps all 
objections on the other side have been answered. Deci¬ 
sion naturally follows, and takes the direction pointed out 
by the winning ideas. This is the highest type of reason¬ 
ing. 

In the second method of coming to a reasonable decision 
the mind also calls up the ideas that it has at command on 
both sides, but the decision is arrived at by some one idea 
springing into much greater prominence than the rest and 
crowding out all other considerations. The decision will 
depend upon this big idea and its feeling. In a few cases 
the conflict between the main idea and the obstructing con¬ 
siderations results in a victory for neither side. The per¬ 
son remains undecided. If the decision must be made, 
the choice usually comes by throwing the will on one side 
or the other with effort enough to overbalance the mind 
in favor of that side. This is the third method of coming 
to a decision. 

In the case of the impulsive type, action follows from 
the force of a single, simple idea; whereas, with the reason¬ 
able type there is the accumulating and sifting of evidence, 
and the force of the original idea is either broken down or 
increased by the results of the comparison with the ideas 
accumulated. 

“Suggestion” vs. “Reason Why.” —The way that a sales- 1 
man can influence decision depends upon the type of mind 
of the customer. Suggestions are the right means of geL 


CLOSING THE SALE 


ting decision from the impulsive type, and “reasons why” 
must be given to the reasonable type of mind. Most peo¬ 
ple act upon impulse most of the time, especially when 
dealing with the common things and in common practice. 
If one should stop to deliberate upon every idea entering 
the mind and calling for decision, he would get nowhere. 
There are some people who can never make up their minds 
—those who must think over every little detail. One idea 
follows another so closely as to prevent the making of a 
decision calling for action. On the other hand, most peo¬ 
ple, even the ultra impulsive, have mental conflicts of 
considerable deliberation as well as duration at times. If 
a person were entirely devoid of this power of deliberation, 
he might rush to his destruction almost any day. 

Power of suggestion. —Public speakers, debaters, and 
others who attempt to sway public opinion, always use sug¬ 
gestion as well as argument. Such expressions as “54-40 
or fight,” “On to Richmond,” “The Union forever,” 
“Down with the tyrant,” “Long live the king,” “Hang the 
traitor,” and many others have helped make history be¬ 
cause of their power of suggestion. 

Modern advertisers are fully aware of this characteristic 
method of getting many persons to decide. In every maga¬ 
zine one sees illustrations filled with the suggestion of 
“saving labor,” “saving money,” “giving satisfaction,” or 
“furnishing enjoyment,” if you will only buy the thing 
advertised. In the advertising of a recent number of a 
business magazine, there occurred among others, the follow¬ 
ing expressions: 

The Prudential has the strength of Gibraltar. 

Esterbrook Steel Pens. Easiest writing—Longest wear¬ 
ing. 

An adding machine for your personal use—$10. 

Which? $6,000 for your head or $600 for your body? 

Be a banker. 


85 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Stop forgetting. 

Study law at home. 

A 7% investment. 

Take a trip to foreign America. 

Your sales increased. 

In no case were the expressions followed by reasons or 
explanations. The aim of each was merely to suggest cer¬ 
tain things to the readers’ minds, which the advertiser 
hoped would lead the readers to buy or at least to sit down 
and answer the advertisement. 

Suggestion depends for its power upon the fact that it 
sets the mind going along a certain line of thought without 
any opposing ideas. Where reasons are given, a different 
sort of a condition is presumed, for reasons constitute part 
of an argument; an argument is the weighing of one side 
against another, a consideration of the points both for and 
against a proposition. There is no such mental conflict 
following a suggestion. The mind unconsciously and sim¬ 
ply takes the direction that is offered to it, and follows it 
until some break or interruption comes. The expression, 
“The Prudential has the strength of Gibraltar,” is an effec¬ 
tive suggestion with many people. The desirable thing 
about insurance is that it shall be certain, and this means 
that the company must be sound. “The Rock of Gibraltar” 
is an expression that suggests to all people eternal strength 
and changelessness. There is a feeling of security about 
its lastingness. This feeling is borrowed by the Pruden¬ 
tial Company when they suggest the association of their 
corporation with this ancient rock. 

There would be no suggestion from this expression for 
those who know nothing about Gibraltar or its place in the 
history of the world. The expression is usually accom¬ 
panied by a picture of the rock. This helps to a certain 
extent to give the right impression to those who know 
nothing of Gibraltar, but this illustration must be doubly 

86 


CLOSING THE SALE 


powerful with those who know of Gibraltar by past read¬ 
ing or observation. 

The same suggestion will not work with all people. To 
be effective, the expression that contains the suggestion 
must connect itself with some habitual line of thought in 
the mind of the hearer or reader, with some common means 
of giving pleasure or satisfaction, with some strong senti¬ 
ment, some ambition, or some fear. Thus suggestion is 
most powerful when it works on thoughts that are grounded 
on instincts. “Get-rich-quick” schemes prosper because of 
their power of suggesting the thoughts based upon the 
instinct of acquisition or possession. If a person would 
stop to reason about a “get-rich-quick” proposition, he 
would see in most cases that the rosy prospects offered were 
the creations of his own mind. What the mind of a per¬ 
son would naturally or instinctively like can easily be 
brought to the attention by suggestion. Patent medicine 
advertisements and quack doctors suggest that people are 
ill and in need of medicine, by giving long lists of symp¬ 
toms, some of which any person is likely to have or to 
imagine that he has. At the suggestion of the advertising 
the mind begins to discover symptoms of sickness in its 
owner’s body, and then plunges into a line of thought that 
pictures how dangerously ill he is, how necessary it is that 
he should do something to cure the ailment, and how sensible 
it would be to take the cure suggested by the quack. 

Suggestion loses its effectiveness as soon as the search¬ 
light of reason is thrown upon it. What is suggested may 
be either good or bad, but when the mind stops and thinks 
over both sides of the question, the power of the idea sug¬ 
gested is partly destroyed—that is, it is counterbalanced 
by other ideas. Hence, the purpose in using suggestion 
is to prevent the mind from thinking objections, and this 
can be accomplished only by direct appeals to strong habits 
and dominant instincts. Since these differ in individuals, 


87 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


one idea will not have equal suggestive value for all people. 

No one likes to believe that he is subject to suggestion. 
All would like to be and appear to be reasonable. Hence, 
suggestion in the hands of clever advertisers and others 
who seek to influence the public will frequently show the 
outward form of reasoning; the suggestion is frequently 
clothed in pseudo or imperfect logic to show why the person 
addressed should take the course of action suggested. The 
quoting of certain statistics without quoting equally reliable 
figures on the other side of an argument, the giving of 
testimonials from people who may themselves have acted 
under suggestion, the use of such expressions as “This is 
what they are all wearing now,” and “Everybody likes 
Wiggle’s chewing gum,” the proving of excellence by stat¬ 
ing that an article is “Made in Germany,” are all illustra¬ 
tions of this sort of false reasoning. As a matter of fact 
we are all subject to some suggestions, and a great many of 
our daily actions are responses to suggestions and not to 
reasons. 

Suggestion is reason shortened. Suggestion is the men¬ 
tal action and immediate decision following from a single 
idea; while reason brings in a full comparison of all favor¬ 
able ideas with all opposing ideas before the decision is 
made. 

All that is necessary to make sales in some lines and with 
some people is a suggestion. All of the steps of a sale in 
such a case are compressed into one. Show an inveterate 
smoker his favorite cigar, and the suggestion to buy comes 
to him at once, if he is not already supplied. His atten¬ 
tion, interest, and desire simply focus into decision to buy. 
The same is true of the newspaper reader when approached 
by the newsboy. The latter hardly ever uses argument. 
His advertising consists of suggestions. “Morning paper., 
sir?” “Herald or Sun?” “All about the wreck,” “Extra 
Sporting Editions,” etc. 


88 


CLOSING THE SALE 


Practical use of suggestion. —Suggestion may be used 
in a sales argument whenever the time permitted the sales¬ 
man is short, or whenever the full analysis of the article 
would prove tiresome to the listener. The special use of 
suggestion comes at the close of the demonstration, when 
the salesman feels reasonably certain that the customer is 
favorably inclined toward the article, and needs only to 
take the deciding step. In advertisements, one may note 
frequently at the close such expressions as the following: 

Don’t wait. Write now. 

Mail coupon to-day. 

Get this catalog. 

Ask your banker. 

Order a sample. 

Send in your order this morning. 

The purpose of these commands is to help the reader to 
make up his mind—to suggest so strongly the idea of favor¬ 
able action that no opposing idea will find a place in the 
reader’s mind. 

The purpose of decision. —The essential thing about de¬ 
cision, whether it comes as the result of a suggestion or of a 
long deliberation, is that it is an act of the mind seeking 
satisfaction. Suggestion is successful in getting decision be¬ 
cause it calls up ideas that are pleasant and satisfactory, or 
the means of getting pleasure or satisfaction. 

Decision that comes after deliberation is the result of the 
mind’s selecting from a variety of related ideas those that 
promise pleasure or satisfaction. The mind always seeks 
to be satisfied. Only that which satisfies or promises satis¬ 
faction interests us. 

Ideas appealing to instincts are strongest. —What sort 
of ideas will satisfy and interest the mind? None are so 
certain with most people as those that are based directly 
upon, or derived from, the instincts. Show by a sugges- 

89 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


tion that an instinctive craving will be satisfied, and you 
will get interest. Or, if the suggestion does not call up 
sufficient force in the customer’s mind, add description and 
argument and further suggestion. If the chord of deep in¬ 
terest is struck, decision in favor of the goods is close at 
hand. 

After the demonstration. —When a salesman has de¬ 
scribed his goods to the customer, suggested their uses, and 
made his proposal clear, the customer will be in one of three 
states of mind. He may not be interested at all. This 
state of affairs will arise frequently in most salesmen’s 
experiences. The goods may not be suitable for the cus¬ 
tomer’s use; he may not be in a position to use them at 
all; he may have something better for his use; or there 
may be other good reasons for lack of interest. A sales¬ 
man should expect to sell only to those who can be shown 
that to purchase will be an advantage. 

Treatment of indecision. —The usual mental state of the 
buyer, after the demonstration, is quite frequently that 
of indecision—of deliberation. This condition calls for 
the statement of more new facts. The salesman needs, 
perhaps, to restate some of the facts already given, in a 
slightly different way so as to make sure that they are 
properly understood. He may relate what success other 
buyers are having with the same thing, or he may bring 
in testimonials. If the customer’s indecision proves hard 
to break down, the salesman may introduce special argu¬ 
ments usually reserved for such occasions, as for example, 
special prices, favorable terms, special service, premiums, 
and so on. He may force a decision by turning away and 
by getting ready to leave or by some other definite action 
calculated to cut off all further deliberation. 

Meeting objections. —It is at this stage of the sale that 
the customer’s objections are most likely to arise, and for 
these the salesman must be ready with full and correct 


90 


CLOSING THE SALE 


answers that will completely displace the negative power 
of the objections in the customer’s mind. Some of the 
most common objections met in ordinary business are given 
here merely as a suggestion of the lines along which the 
salesman must study. 

1. “I don’t want it.” A customer does not want a thing 
when he feels no need for it. The answer to the objec¬ 
tion is to point out how he needs it. 

2. “I don’t need it.” The demonstration and descrip¬ 
tion of the goods should aim definitely and clearly at show¬ 
ing the customer his need for the article. If that need can¬ 
not be shown, the sale deserves to be lost. If a man feels 
no need for an article, it can have no value for him. 

3. “Price too high.” In answer to this objection the 
salesman may make comparisons with other goods, or 
he may point out what the returns will be from the invest¬ 
ment. It is not what one pays, but what one gets for 
what he pays, that counts. 

4. “Can’t afford it.” The salesman must prove definitely 
that the customer can afford it. He may show that the 
customer cannot afford to get along without it. 

5. “I will wait a while.” The salesman must show that 
the delay will mean a loss, that to put off buying can bring 
no good. If the article is worth having later, it is worth 
having now. 

6. “I am satisfied with what I have now.” The sales¬ 
man may raise the question if the customer would still be 
satisfied with the older article if he owned a new one that 
would serve him much better. He might suggest the favor¬ 
able effect of the new article upon other people who will 
see the change. One is satisfied with a thing only when 
he does not have something better to take its place. Con¬ 
sider how successful men have kept their minds open to 
new ideas and improvements. Progress is the result of 
this open-mindedness. 


9i 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


There is only one logical way to meet a customer’s ob¬ 
jection, and that is to analyze it fully—by anticipating it, 
if possible—and then to meet it fairly and squarely with 
facts. But most salesmen fail to meet objections in such 
a manner because they have not the facts; they do not 
know fully what the facts are, or they do not know how 
to state them. 

The psychological moment for the close. —When a 
customer’s mind has fully grasped the salesman’s offer, 
when the negative ideas, the obstructing objections, have 
all been dispelled, and when his mind is occupied with 
the good points of the article, then is the time to think of 
effecting the close. That is the psychological moment of 
the sale. There is no place for hesitation on the part of 
the salesman at this point. He must proceed boldly. Nor 
is there any reason for hesitation. It may be safely as¬ 
sumed that, if the customer fully understands the goods 
and has no unanswerable objections to them, he will buy if 
asked to do so. When this time has been reached, the 
customer’s mind is ready for action. To talk more, or to 
add further arguments would be both useless and danger¬ 
ous, for, if the mind does not get a chance to act when 
ready to do so, it grows tired of the subject at once and 
feels a disgust for it. Many a sale has been lost because 
the salesman kept on talking after the customer had made 
up his mind. 

Managing the close of the sale. —With some persons it 
may be very difficult to determine just when this psycholog¬ 
ical moment has been reached. . The salesman wants to 
avoid the appearance of pressing the sale, but he needs also 
to be ready to grasp the opportunity to sell as soon as it 
comes. Therefore, tactful questions aimed at testing the 
feeling of the customer and avoiding any open break or 
objection should be raised from time to time to see which 
way the customer inclines. The final appeal is nearly ah 


92 


CLOSING THE SALE 


ways in the form of a suggestion, and it is best when it 
can not be misinterpreted, or when it can start the mind 
only along the positive direction that leads to the purchase. 
Note the difference in the following suggestions: 

“You don’t want to buy a new coat, do you?” (Neg¬ 
ative.) 

“A new coat for you in time for Easter.” (Posi¬ 
tive.) 

The first suggests the immediate answer, “No, I don’t.” 
The second causes one to pause, and think “A new coat for 
Easter would be a fine thing.” 

A good drygoods salesman does not say, “Do you want 
to buy some of this cloth?” That might suggest, “No,” to 
the customer. The salesman says, “How many yards will 
you need?” The salesman will not say, “Do you want 
this?” or “You had better take this”; he will assume that 
the customer wants it, and he will say, “Do you wish to 
take this with you?” “What is your address, please?” 
“When would you want this?” “Would you like this 
shipped by freight or by express?” “There are three 
styles; which do you prefer?” 

After the customer has given his consent to the purchase, 
the salesman should seek to make the necessary closing 
arrangements, such as filling the order, making out the 
sales slip, or whatever else may be required, as soon as 
possible. No good ever comes from adding more selling 
talk when a sale is made. In fact, many sales have been 
lost because the salesman did not know when to stop talk¬ 
ing. If the demonstration of the goods has been complete, 
no further explanation is needed. When the customer 
buys, it is safe to assume that he is satisfied. Any further 
talk by the salesman should be in the nature of instruction 
on how to use the goods. When the customer takes the 


93 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


goods, she does so because she believes that they will suit 
her. The goods and the salesman must from henceforth 
“make good” by act instead of by words. 

Every customer should be thanked for her purchase. 
“Thank you, sir,” or “Thank you, madam,” should be said 
clearly and distinctly and in tones that will show that the 
salesman means it. If the salesman cannot make the sale, 
he should thank the customer for her time, and express 
regret that he cannot be of service to her. The spirit of 
the close, whether a sale is made or not, should be such 
that the customer will want to come again. Make her glad 
that she came. 


CHAPTER IX 

SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 

Differences in selling ability. —One of the noteworthy 
things about actual salesmanship is the difficulty of analyz¬ 
ing and pointing out the exact causes of success or failure 
in many attempted sales. Sometimes an individual may 
give ever so good a demonstration, make the uses of his 
article ever so clear, and the means of obtaining it sur¬ 
prisingly easy; the prospective customer may be one who 
might be greatly helped by owning the article; but still the 
sale fails. Another salesman may happen along and give 
a less logical demonstration; he may have a poorer article; 
and yet make the sale. Why this difference in results? 

Personality of the salesman. —There are many possible 
reasons for such occurrences. Perhaps the most important 
factor in bringing such things about, however, is the per¬ 
sonality of the salesman. People are not cold-blooded, logi¬ 
cal machines. Facts and reasons are not everything with 
anybody. The subtle influence of the man behind the goods 
helps make or spoil many a sale. 

What is personality. —It is hard to define personality. 
It is hard to tell what its causes are. There seem to be 
some qualities in every person that attract and others that 
repel, entirely aside from any ideas that may be expressed 
by him. These positive and negative forces in a person 
assist or detract from his power to influence his fellows. 
There are some who are declared to be natural born lead- 


95 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


ers. People seem to expect to follow them, and to do as 
they direct. We say they have strong personalities. Many 
of their qualities are such that they can be analyzed and 
pointed out; among the most common of these are honesty, 
loyalty, self-confidence, persistence, initiative, and resource¬ 
fulness. A person of vigorous health—who is full of en¬ 
ergy, and who looks it—always commands more attention, 
other things being equal, than the weak, sick, or lazy type. 
A person who knows his business and has a reputation for 
knowing it has at least one of the elements in a strong 
personality. 

Personality in selling.—After physical health, appear¬ 
ance, courtesy, and knowledge of goods, strong personality 
in selling is more than anything else a combination of two 
things—tact and enthusiasm. 

Tact. —Tact is the ability to get along with people, to lead 
them, to influence them, to tell them the truth without giv¬ 
ing offence. Tact is the result of a keen sense of other 
peoples’ feelings and a knowledge of what they like and 
dislike—of what pleases them and what hurts them. A 
tactful person is one who can see clearly the other fellow’s 
point of view. Those who are tactless are usually self- 
centered, with their thoughts solely upon themselves. 
Knowledge of the problems of other people, together with 
a sufficient experience in these problems to know how other 
people feel is the surest way of acquiring tact. The tact¬ 
less person explains how he hurt someone’s feelings, by 
saying: “I didn’t think.” That is just it. He did not 
think of the effect of what he said or did before the act. 
A little more attention to the points of view of others 
would lessen the number of such mistakes. 

Enthusiasm. —Enthusiasm is the keynote of success in 
salesmanship. As a great salesman has said, “Enthusiasm 
is the white heat that fuses all other good qualities into 
one effective mass. A little illustration: take a piece of 

36 


PROBLEMS IN RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 


blue glass and a sapphire. You can polish that glass until 
it has a surface as smooth and hard as the sapphire’s. But 
when you look down into them you see thousands of little 
lights shining up at you out of the sapphire that you can¬ 
not see in the blue glass—and you never can get out of the 
blue glass those little tongues of flame which just seem to 
leap out as you look at the sapphire. What these little 
lights are in a sapphire, enthusiasm is in the man. Some 
men are almost irresistible; it is because enthusiasm radiates 
from their features, beams from their eyes, and is present 
in their actions. A man lacking enthusiasm is only a 
statue.” 

Sane enthusiasm. —If a man is enthusiastic, that fact 
proves his interest in his goods; and his interest will attract 
others’ interest. Enthusiasm in selling is expressed by 
the bright eye, the clear-cut, straight-forward, sympathetic 
expression, dignity without frigidity, optimism without 
bragging or bravado, naturalness and not affectation in 
manner, and readiness to do the next thing, whatever it 
may be. The salesman’s language should consist of direct, 
concise ideas and not of hollow words and phrases. All 
of these things, and more, too, have a part in creating the 
desirable impression of enthusiasm. 

Faith. —Personality is improved by one’s attitude toward 
the goods he has to sell. One cannot hope to exert posi¬ 
tive influences unless he has the utmost faith in his goods, in 
his house, and in its way of doing business. The ‘‘knocker” 
may have reason for his fault finding, but his selling ability 
is lowered by his mental attitude. 

Bluffing. —The “bluffer” is weak in personality. He may 
succeed in “putting up a front” a few times, but it is con¬ 
trary to nature for him to succeed always. He does not 
know what he is talking about, and he knows that he does 
not know. This fact will be sufficient to undo him. Some¬ 
one will soon see through him. 


97 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Manner of speaking. —Manner of speaking is important 
as a part of the personality. What a salesman says should 
be clear—so simple that there can be no misunderstanding. 
He should never seem to be at a loss for something to 
say, and yet what he says should express definite ideas. 
Repeating from memory always gives a bad impression, 
as does a cut-and-dried style of description. The sales¬ 
man needs to cultivate new ways of expressing his ideas, 
suited to the changing needs of his customers. 

Know customers’ names. —Know people by name. It is 
surprising how pleasing it is to most people to have others 
know them and call them by name. The speaking of the 
name secures an extra hold on the attention of the cus¬ 
tomer. As a matter of habit we all give our full attention 
to the man who calls us by name. The salesman places 
himself in a position of power right at the outset by this 
means. The customer likes it, and naturally returns again 
to the one who knows him personally. It will pay any 
salesman in any city, large or small, to learn the names of 
as many customers as possible. Many successful business¬ 
men made it a part of their early training to speak to all 
of their customers and to call them all by name. This 
is a detail that is worth cultivating. 

Sell the most profitable goods. —Where no particular 
choice among several articles is manifested by the cus¬ 
tomer, and where there is a difference in the amount of 
profit to be yielded to the store by the articles under con¬ 
sideration, a salesman can and should add to the resources 
of his institution by selling to the customer that which yields 
the store the largest profit. This is entirely legitimate 
when the customer will be equally well served and as well 
satisfied by the article selected by the salesman as he would 
be if it were selected solely by himself. Every store and 
its salesmen must push and suggest its most profitable 
lines. 


98 


PROBLEMS IN RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 


Do not show what will not fit. —When a salesman is sell¬ 
ing a line in which there are sizes and in which he cannot 
supply any size in all patterns, colors, or designs on hand, 
he will do well to avoid showing any pattern, color, or design 
in which he does not have the size that will fit the cus¬ 
tomer. To show a color that may prove attractive to a 
customer and then have to tell her - that the store cannot 
supply the right size will likely cause the customer to go 
elsewhere in search of the same color. The salesman should 
know his stock so well that such mistakes could not occur. 

Handle goods appreciatively. —The salesman should 
handle his goods as if he valued them highly. To throw 
things about roughly, to handle them in a rough manner or 
with soiled hands, gives a bad impression to many people. 
The best salespeople in the world are those who handle 
their goods as if they loved them, with caresses and great 
care, as if the goods were alive and had feeling. This is a 
principle of wide application; many otherwise good sales¬ 
men would do well to study it and apply it. 

Customers first. —The prospective customer should have 
the first consideration in a store. Everything else should 
come second. If the salesman is'talking to some one who is 
not a customer when a customer enters the store, let him 
stop his sentence in the middle and go to the customer— 
let the subject rest until the customer’s wants have been 
attended to fully. 

Meet the customer promptly. —The salesman should not 
wait for the customer to come to him; he should go to 
meet the customer promptly and respectfully. This helps 
to get favorable attention from most customers; it makes 
a good impression, and therefore pays. 

No favoritism. —There should be no favoritism towards 
customers. Each should be waited upon in his turn unless 
full permission has been granted by those preceding for 
the salesman to give his attention to the later comer. Fair 


99 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


play appeals to all, even those who are anxious to be waited 
upon before their neighbors who arrived sooner. The 
salesman should nod recognition in a kindly way, or explain 
pleasantly that he will be glad to serve the latest comer 
as soon as the others are waited on. • This is necessary, for 
it helps to hold the probable customer until there is time 
to attend to her wants. Otherwise she might resent the 
lack of attention and turn around and go out. Another 
plan is to try to get the customer busy at something or 
other. If it is a warm day, ask her to be seated and hand 
her a fan; this will result in good will and patience in 
many cases. If the goods in which she shows interest are 
displayed on the counters, she might be encouraged to look 
them over herself. A number of other ways will suggest 
themselves to wide-awake salesmen to hold customers in 
a rush. The important point is to hold as many as possible, 
and still give to everyone a “square deal” in the way of 
personal service and attention. 

Answer questions frankly. —All questions asked of sales¬ 
men should be answered frankly and promptly, if they are 
at all proper. When a customer asks a question about the 
goods, a frank, truthful answer should be given, and it 
should be given at once. Hesitation is often a sign either 
of ignorance or of the taking of time to think up some 
deception. Good salesmen cannot afford to put such im¬ 
pressions into any customer’s mind. The truth must be 
told; but there are some ways of telling the truth that are 
more tactful than others, as has already been pointed out. 
Tact must be used in phrasing the truth. There is a story 
about a shoe salesman who was asked by a lady whom he 
was fitting if one of her feet were not larger than the other. 
He replied quickly, “One foot is a little smaller than the 
other.” The ability to combine truth and tact in this way 
is the kind of ability that brings success in selling. 

Contrary customers. —There are some customers who are 


ioo 


PROBLEMS IN RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 


hard to lead in the matter of selection. They resent any 
direction, other than through suggestion, unless the help 
of the salesman is definitely asked. In fact, to make a 
sale to some people, it is necessary to do as the Irishman 
did who drove his pig to Dublin by making the pig think 
that he wanted it to go the other way. 

Be obliging. —Salespeople should answer questions will¬ 
ingly, if they can answer them at all. People often drop 
into stores to inquire directions. Some salesmen look upon 
such inquirers as intruders. This is wrong. The salesman 
can well afford to give directions or answers with courtesy. 
In some cities, people frequently drop into a store to have 
a bill changed or to ask some similar favor. Salesmen 
and storekeepers should willingly and gladly grant these 
favors if they know that there is no dishonesty intended 
by the visitors. A man once moved from one town to 
another, and on the day that he arrived in his new home, 
he had occasion to get change for a ten dollar bill. He 
walked into a grocery store, presented the bill, and the 
change was refused without any explanation. He then of¬ 
fered to buy a five cent article that lay in front of him, 
but the storekeeper refused to sell, saying, “You just want 
to buy that so you can get the change from me.” Do you 
think this man opened an account at this store when he 
began buying the next day ? He did not. He never traded 
at that store. A few years ago the store was closed, and 
there were no friends to mourn the fact. A short-sighted 
service policy never brings success. 

Attend closely to customer. —When waiting on the cus¬ 
tomer the salesman should give the customer his entire 
attention. Salesmen should not speak to one another in 
the presence of customers except in the necessary service 
of a customer. The salesman should be an interested lis¬ 
tener to what the customer has to say, and her point of 
view should be thoroughly respected. The store is for the 

ioi 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 

customer, and not the customer for the store. If there were 
no customers, there could be no stores, but there could be 
people without stores—especially could they get along with¬ 
out the stores that do not adequately serve them. 

Customers’ complaints. —Listen to the customers’ com¬ 
plaints. Find out what they are in a respectful way. Do 
not get angry or feel insulted. Find out what the reasons 
for the complaints are and profit by them. The successful 
salesman is the one who can suit all kinds of people. There 
are some good-natured people that anybody can sell to and 
satisfy. A noted advertising man for a large department 
store kept in his office above his desk a picture of a cross, 
tired-looking woman—the kind that is hardest to suit. 
When asked why that picture was there, he replied, “I 
write all my advertising with that woman in mind. If I can 
suit her, there will be no question about suiting the rest 
of the people.” 

Profit by complaints. —Oftentimes there is reason for 
the complaints that are made. A store should be glad to 
have them come. The dangerous kind of complaints are 
those which do not come in until they have traveled from 
person to person for weeks. No store is perfect. No 
salesman is perfect. Open-mindedness is shown by the de¬ 
sire to learn weak points and to have them corrected. Our 
critics are unwittingly our best friends, for they make us 
improve. 

Should a retail clerk try to sell anything? —Should a 
retail salesman attempt to sell things, other than those which 
the customer comes in to buy? Recently a young sales¬ 
man said, “Why, I wouldn’t do that. The customer knows 
what she wants. To try to force anything else, or more 
than she wants, on her would be a kind of hold-up.” This 
salesman thought his entire duty had been performed when 
he had given courteous attention to the customer’s demands. 
But he was not a salesman. He was merely an order-taker , 


102 


PROBLEMS IN RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 


though in this case a fairly good one, because he was good 
mannered and active. 

Service to customers. —After what has already been said, 
it is hardly necessary to show in detail why a salesman 
should attempt to sell more goods than those the customer 
comes in to order. There are two reasons why the sales¬ 
man should do more than merely wait on his customers. 
The first is that this service is due to the customer. To 
sell a customer what she does not want is absolutely wrong, 
and the business that attempts to do this cannot stay long 
in existence, and does not deserve to do so. But to tell a 
customer of new things, new uses, and new qualities, to 
advertise the fact that you have the goods that she may 
think can only be obtained elsewhere, is a matter of educa¬ 
tion for the customer, for which most people are really 
thankful if the service has been rendered in a tactful way. 

Progress in standard of living due to salesmen. —The 
material comforts of our life—the apparatus, furnishings, 
and articles of home use—have increased greatly within the 
past few years. The modern home compared with the 
home of a hundred years ago is a marvel. But practically 
everything that has been added to make the home what it 
is has been introduced to the home-makers by salesmen 
or by salesmanship in print in the form of advertising. In 
the progress of increasing comfort in living that nearly 
all people are sharing in these days, the greatest credit be¬ 
longs to retail salesmen—those who are really salesmen, that 
is, educators of the public. 

A community stands still that is served by order-takers. 
The backwardness of many small communities is due solely 
to the fact that they have not live, progressive, aggressive 
dealers who seek to educate their customers. 

Service to employer. —The second reason why retail 
salesmen should try to sell other goods besides those the 
customer comes in to buy is that it takes sales to make 


Tfl-i 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


profits, and it takes profits to continue the growth of a busi¬ 
ness. No sales mean no profit. One article sold means one 
profit; two articles sold mean more profit. A good sales¬ 
man not only serves his customers by satisfying them, but 
he also serves his employer. It is his business to make sales. 

So the retail salesman should go after business, but of 
course he should use tact and knowledge of his business in 
making his attempts to sell. The greatest danger, however, 
is not that mistakes will be made in pushing the business, 
but rather that the business will not be pushed enough. 
Better err on the side of being a hustler than on the side of 
being over-cautious. Work along all legitimate lines in in¬ 
creasing the prestige of your business. A successful busi¬ 
ness reflects full credit on the successful salesman in that 
business. 

Find out cause of failures. —If, as often happens, the 
sale cannot be closed favorably the salesman should attempt 
to learn why he failed. Let him analyze his goods and 
see why the customer did not buy them, and let him frankly 
analyze himself and face the reasons why he could not 
make the sale. The salesman should never lose his temper. 
Even when treated shabbily, he should remember that he 
is a gentleman and that he represents a respectable house 
that wants him to be a gentleman. Let the customer see 
that the salesman cannot be aggravated or irritated, and in 
most cases his appreciation of the salesman will rise. 

Leave customers with friendly feeling. —When leaving 
a customer, whether she has purchased or not, make sure 
that the spirit of the occasion is not such that she will not 
want to see you again. Business is impersonal, but busi¬ 
ness relations are extremely personal. The most successful 
salesmen are those who draw the good will not only of their 
customers, but also of those who do not buy. Sometime or 
other the latter may buy. 

The store is not a loitering place. —The store is not a 
104 


PROBLEMS IN RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 


loitering place for people who have nothing to do. The 
trade of many stores is ruined because these places be¬ 
come loafing places for idlers whose greatest delight is to 
chew or smoke tobacco, tell stories, and spread gossip. 
Ladies do not like to go to such places, nor do self- 
respecting men. This is so well recognized that even some 
cigar stores, where one would suppose that the proprietor 
would be glad to have men come in to sit down and smoke, 
do not have a single chair in the place, and no room for 
loungers. The store is a business place, and it does best 
when it lives up to this ideal. Rest rooms are provided in 
some large stores for customers, and this is good policy, 
but these rooms are separated definitely from the rest of the 
establishment. One does not have to go to the rest room 
unless he wants to. 

All loitering and pure visiting in the ordinary retail store 
should be discouraged. Retail salesmen should explain this 
to their friends so that it may be definitely known that the 
store is the place where the customer comes first always. 

Visiting among salespeople is also bad if there are cus¬ 
tomers in the store. It may seem unnecessarily hard that 
two salesmen should not converse in the store when not 
waiting on customers, simply because some customers may 
be trading within sight or hearing distance. But there are 
some customers who are so sensitive that visiting among the 
salesmen, even if at some distance, is annoying. Many cus¬ 
tomers are very self-conscious when they buy, and any re¬ 
mark in the vicinity, any laughing, or even a smile may be 
interpreted as aimed at them. This happens ever so much 
more frequently than most salespeople think. It pays to 
take no chances. Visiting among salesmen also gives to 
customers the impression of idleness. Idleness means no 
business. No business means something wrong. The cus¬ 
tomer’s suspicion about goods and service arises. Once 
more, it pays to take no chances. 


105 


CHAPTER X 

LEAKS AND LOSSES IN RETAIL STORES 

Retail store leaks. —Efficiency in business means, for one 
thing, the prevention of leaks and wastes. This is an ex¬ 
ceedingly important topic in the study of a retail business, 
for no matter how excellent the buying, how scientific the 
advertising, or how skillful the selling, if leaks and wastes 
are not watched closely, the store is likely to run behind. 

Gross profit is the difference between what a merchant 
pays for his goods and what he sells them for. But out of 
this gross profit he must pay all the expenses of the busi¬ 
ness, the salaries of the salesmen and all other employes, 
advertising, rent, taxes, insurance, light, heat, telephone, 
delivery, wrapping materials, breakage and spoilage, repairs, 
alterations, depreciation of merchandise, depreciation of 
buildings and equipment, bad debts, stolen goods, and so 
on. Investigations and careful accounting methods show 
that the net profit on most goods is very small after all of 
these expenses are paid. But these expenses must be paid 
before there can be any profit. Now, it is easy to see that 
any unusual loss or leak would wipe out this narrow mar¬ 
gin of net profit and possibly a part of the merchant’s 
capital. Success in store management in some places de¬ 
pends entirely upon skill in avoiding these leaks or losses, 
and in this the salesmen is the chief factor. By his methods 
of doing business, the business rises or falls. 

There are in the main two general classes of retail losses; 

106 


LEAKS AND LOSSES IN RETAIL STORES 


namely, those due to external causes, and those due to in¬ 
efficient store management. But good management can 
avoid losses from several of the external causes. 

Fire. —One of the greatest causes of loss in this country 
is fire. Though a discussion of this as a first cause of loss 
in a textbook on salesmanship may seem a little out of 
place, yet salesmen as well as all other classes of citizens 
should be interested in wiping out this enormous yearly 
loss. Examples of carefulness in this regard should come 
from good business houses first of all. For the year 1911 
the fire loss amounted to over $225,000,000 or about $2.50 
for every man, woman, and child in the United States. 
This rate is many times higher than in any other civil¬ 
ized country. In France the annual loss is about thirty- 
three cents per capita, while in all of the other advanced 
countries it is less than sixty cents per year. 

Our big fire loss shows several things: first, that we do 
not know how to build our property so as to avoid fires; 
secondly, that we do not appreciate the value of our property 
as we should, or we would take steps to put a stop to this 
loss; and, thirdly, that our education upon the subjects of 
saving, conservation, and economical living is inadequate. 
When one considers how American people permit fires to 
destroy their property—a single item among our many 
wastes—one does not wonder that the cost of living is a 
live question. The total loss by fire in this country during 
the last thirty-three years amounts to $5,147,253,724. This 
is nearly as much as has been expended for all kinds of 
schools and education in the country during the same period. 
If this amount of money could have been saved and placed 
at six per cent, interest, the income would pay the salary 
of every teacher in every school in the United States and 
still leave a few millions to spare every year. 

Yet this great amount of wealth was largely thrown away 
by carelessness. It is well agreed that if people would only 


107 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


stop doing senseless things and would practice what seems 
to be ordinary common sense, at least fifty per cent, of the 
fire loss could be avoided. It rests with the business man 
and the schools to begin at once a program of education 
that will check this waste. Such education will consist of 
an analysis of the causes of fires and a study of the methods 
of avoiding them. 

There follows a table of the principal causes of fire—a list 
that should be studied with great care. To be forewarned 
is to be forearmed. Fire prevention is a part of every citi¬ 
zen’s duty. 

Causes of fires: 

1. Matches 

carelessly thrown away while lighted. 

used by children. 

gnawed by rats or mice. 

exploded by weights falling upon them. 

ignited by friction in pocket. 

“When you strike a match you start a fire; see that you 
put it out.” (Slogan of Portland, Ore., Business 
Men’s Association.) 

2. Chimneys and flues 

becoming defective by cracking, 
with accumulations of soot. 

3. Stoves and stovepipes 

over-heating. 

“burned out.” 

improperly protected from floors, walls, and ceilings 

4. Kerosene lamps 

turned down low. 

filled while lighted. 

filled with other lights too near. 

extinguished by blowing down the chimney. 

rendered defective by accumulations of sediment. 


108 


LEAKS AND LOSSES IN RETAIL STORES 


5. Starting fires with kerosene or gasoline. 

6. Keeping gasoline indoors and 

filling gasoline stoves while lighted, 
mistaking gasoline for kerosene, 
using it carelessly in cleaning clothing. 

7. Rubbish and sweepings. 

8. Oily and other waste material. 

9. Smoking. 

10. Sparks from locomotives and other engines. 

11. Spontaneous combustion. 

12. Lighting. 

13. Defective boilers and fireplaces. 

14. Defective electric wiring. 

15. Inflammable material coming into contact with gas jets. 

16. Gas explosions. 

17. Celebrating Fourth of July with explosives. 

18. Christmas trees trimmed with candles and -inflamma¬ 

ble materials. 

19. Ashes in or near wooden or other inflammable ma¬ 

terial. 

20. Bonfires. 

Fully fifty per cent, of all fires are preventable, and 
twenty per cent, may be traced to careless housekeeping. 

From the standpoint of the retail business the first es¬ 
sential precaution is sufficient insurance. This sounds com¬ 
monplace, but experience with fire losses shows that deal¬ 
ers do not insure their stocks adequately. This point is so 
important that wholesale credit men almost invariably make 
inquiry concerning the insurance carried by a store apply¬ 
ing for credit. Too low insurance is often a contributing, if 
not a determining, factor in the refusal of credit. As pre¬ 
cautions against fire loss, the heating and lighting apparatus 
should be well guarded. Inflammable goods and sub¬ 
stances should be stored in places absolutely secure from 
fire. Hot air pipes, though hardly ever the source of a fire 


109 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


unless a flame gets into them, should be protected. In stores 
that have hot air heating systems with floor registers, paper 
or refuse is frequently dropped down the registers into the 
pipes and thence to the top of the furnace. Some day 
when the furnace becomes heated red-hot, this refuse is set 
afire, and the smoke and flames shoot up through the ven¬ 
tilation .system. Gas and electric light pendants should be 
kept free from hangings, and no goods should be stored 
within three feet of a gas flame. Every night before closing, 
it should be the duty of some responsible person to look 
through the entire store to see that everything is safe. 
Many a fire has been caused by smouldering cigar stumps, 
burning lamps, etc. The rules of insurance underwriters’ 
associations regarding wiring and heating are the best for 
the merchant in the long run. Though the insurance in¬ 
spector and his orders are not always heartily welcomed by 
the merchants, his rules are based on experience; hence 
they are the best to follow. 

Stealing.—Stealing is a difficult problem in any store. 
There are three classes of thieves. First, there is the bur¬ 
glar or house-breaker, against whom the store must provide 
watchmen, bolts and locks, iron shutters, and burning lights 
that make the interior visible from the street. Secondly, 
there is the shoplifter, the false, aimless shopper who is not 
anxious to have a clerk wait on her or him, but who has deep 
capacious pockets, is often assisted by accomplices, and who 
uses ingenious methods to get away with the store’s goods. 
Against these the watchfulness of the store’s entire force, in¬ 
cluding, in larger places, store detectives, must be utilized 
in such a manner as to catch the culprit, and also to keep 
any feeling of restraint or suspicion from entering the 
honest store visitor’s mind. Thirdly, there is the pilfering of 
dishonest clerks. With modern systems of checking and 
accounting in a store, dishonest employes are usually found 
out, sooner or later, and where direct evidence cannot be 


110 


LEAKS AND LOSSES IN RETAIL STORES 


produced against them, they are simply dismissed without 
explanations. We have already dealt with this subject 
under the heading “Honesty/’ from the standpoint of the 
employe. The employer has responsibility in the matter 
also. As far as possible he should protect young employes 
from temptation. He needs to watch his employes to guide 
them rightly. He owes it to himself, to his business, and 
to his employes to know how the latter live, how they spend 
their leisure, and how they spend their money, especially if 
it goes into any form other than necessities or investments. 
The time is past when any business employe can say that 
“it is no one’s business how I spend my leisure time.” Such 
an attitude will often put a man out of a job, and, as stand¬ 
ards climb, this will be even more true in the future. 

Over-measurement. —Among the losses due to ineffi¬ 
ciency, or causes over which salespeople have control, are 
over-measurements or over-weights. City dealers of weights 
and measures often find scales and measures that give 
too much, as well as those, which have been so widely 
advertised in newspapers and magazines, that give too little. 
Carelessness in measuring is a source of great loss. Con¬ 
sider that in the sale of a yard of cloth at a dollar there is a 
net profit after all expenses have been paid of about three 
cents. This is not an unusual case. Now, suppose that in 
selling a yard the salesman gives one inch of over-measure 
—a little more than the width of the thumb. What is the 
result? One inch is one thirty-sixth of a yard, and one 
thirty-sixth of a dollar amounts to nearly three cents. 
Where has the net profit gone to? The sale might as well 
not have been made. When customers buy, they are en¬ 
titled to exactly full measure—no more, no less. Efficient 
sales service gives just this. To give more is graft for the 
customer and loss to the store. To give less is graft for 
the store and loss to the customer. Both are double 
wrongs. 


Ill 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Poor care of merchandise. —Lack of care of merchan¬ 
dise, and the permitting of goods to rust, to become dirty, 
wrinkled, and out of shape are sources of loss that can 
easily wipe out the profit. Efficient salespeople will handle 
the goods so as to prevent such losses. An inefficient win¬ 
dow-trimmer, for example, can ruin a great amount of 
goods by misusing the goods in the windows, wrinkling 
them, filling them full of pin holes, leaving delicate goods 
in the light too long, handling delicate fabrics with soiled 
hands, etc. 

Poor packing. —Poor packing, the kind that comes untied 
or allows breakage or other losses is another leak that stores 
must stop. Proper packing involves the right kind of pa¬ 
per. twine, boxes, and other material. Time may be saved 
by having all of these things placed in orderly arrangement 
close to where they are to be used so as to prevent waste of 
time in hunting for them. 

Waste of supplies. —Improvident use of supplies, such as 
wrapping paper, twine, boxes, bags, etc., is another source 
of loss. For example: 

1. The use of large sheets of wrapping paper, when 
smaller sheets would prove ample. 

2. The careless dropping of fresh wrapping paper to the 
floor to be trampled on. 

3. The winding of numerous strands of cord around a 
package, when a less number would protect the bundle. 

4. The throwing away of useful lengths of cord or 
rope. 

5. The habit of picking up a letter-head or other ex¬ 
pensive piece of paper to figure on when a small pad or bit 
of discarded paper would answer all requirements. 

6. The throwing into the wastebin of slightly soiled 
cartons that could be used to replace others that are shop¬ 
worn or to pack merchandise for delivery, for which boxes 
are not specially made but must be provided. 


112 


LEAKS AND LOSSES IN RETAIL STORES 


7. The loss entailed by being careless of dust rags, 
brooms, and brushes. 

8. The throwing away of pins that could very conveni¬ 
ently be placed on a cushion. 

9. The dropping of rubber bands, pin tickets, tags, 
etc., the picking up of which, to many, is Oh! so much 
trouble. 

Unsalable stock. —Shopworn goods and accumulations of 
remnants and of dead stock are other sources of bad losses. 
Careful salesmanship will prevent all three. Remnants can 
be avoided to a certain extent by keeping track of the goods 
on hand, and by selling only in wholes the pieces that 
are close to the remnant stage. Dead stock is prevented 
by pushing the “stickers’ 5 forward and marking them down 
to a price that will move them. Mark-downs may not even 
be necessary if the poor moving stock is simply given 
advantageous locations and some attention by the salesmen. 

Waste of light. —There is danger of wastes in light, es¬ 
pecially where it is turned on in out-of-the-way places, down 
in the basement, in the stock room or elsewhere, and then 
forgotten. Each salesman should establish the habit of elim¬ 
inating all such useless leaks. Where artificial light is used, 
it costs something for every moment that it burns. There 
should be no economizing where light is needed, but where 
it is not needed, it is waste to use it. 

Leaky packages. —Merchants are usually careful about 
their use of leaky barrels and cracked boxes—packages that 
permit losses to occur in one form or another. Yet this 
is a source of loss in nearly every store to a certain extent. 

Vermin. —Rats, mice, and other vermin destroy great 
values of goods every year all over the country. A modern 
store will plan to keep out such vermin or at least to destroy 
them as soon as they enter. This is a small detail that 
means a great deal in the long run. 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Losses due to delivery department. —The delivery de¬ 
partment is responsible for a number of losses to the store, 
due to the following: 

1. Goods lost in transit. 

2. Goods damaged in the wagons. 

3. Damage to the wagons or other parts of the deliv¬ 
ery equipment caused by careless driving. 

4. Poor care of the equipment and consequent rapid 
deterioration. 

5. Carelessness in routing and consequent loss of time 
in making the deliveries. 

6. Wrong deliveries due to wrong addresses or to the 
misreading of addresses. 

7. Improper use of time. 

8. Lost containers’ baskets, crates, boxes, jugs, rug 
poles, etc. 

These losses are only the common ones. To know what 
they are is to know what to do about them. Delivery expense 
for general merchandise storage averages in cost to the store 
from two cents up to nearly twenty-five cents per delivery. 
This difference in extremes is due largely to differences in 
efficiency in the delivery departments. 

Care of delivery equipment. —Recently the Standard 
Oil Company established a measure of the efficiency of its 
teamsters throughout the entire country by requiring weekly 
reports showing the weight of the horses. The purpose of 
the company was to check carelessness on the part of the 
teamsters in their care of the horses. It was thought that 
this would have a two-fold result. . In the first place, the 
horses would be kept in better condition; they would be 
able to do more work, and there would be less sickness 
among them. Loss of weight is an excellent premonitory 
symptom of loss of good health. In the second place, the 
result would no doubt be better looking horses. Well-fed, 
sleek, lively horses, and good, well-painted, well-kept wag- 


LEAKS AND LOSSES IN RETAIL STORES 


ons have much advertising value that a retail store as well 
as the Standard Oil Company cannot afford to lose. 

Salesmen’s errors. —Salesmen’s errors are frequent 
causes of losses in retail stores. Among the common 
errors that are avoided by careful salesmen are the follow¬ 
ing: 

1. Penmanship so poor that time is lost in reading it. 

2. W riting down wrong addresses when deliveries are 
to be made by the store. The salesman should be very 
careful to get the exact address—the exact spelling of the 
name of the customer, the name of the street, and the ex¬ 
act number. There should be no guess work. 

3. Making change incorrectly. 

4. Failing to assemble and list all the items purchased. 

5. Mistakes in addition. (Common, but easy to remedy 
if the salesman will take the time to learn to add.) 

6. Failure to charge the sale, if made on account. 

7. Mistakes in computing discounts when they are 
offered on sales days or at other times. 

Waste of time. —Some salesmen take too much time in 
doing the routine work of the store. Here is a chance for 
studying scientifically the easiest and quickest ways of 
doing things. One of the first essentials is to work method¬ 
ically. Find out which is the best way to clean the cases 
or shelves, replenish the stock, wrap a parcel, or whatever 
else is to be done; and then practice doing the work that 
way rapidly and well. There is sometimes waste of time in 
selling. A customer should be sold as quickly as possible, 
although under most circumstances, it would be wrong to 
hurry her. The selling should be all business from start to 
finish. There is another form of waste of time that needs 
mention, and that is the waste due to tardiness and slow¬ 
ness in getting at the work of the day. Time is worth 
money—every minute of it. Waste of time is like throw¬ 
ing money away. 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Waste of labor. —Every salesman wastes some energy. 
Some waste most of their energy in doing things in the 
wrong way, the long way, or the hard way. As in the 
case of saving time, the salesman should plan his work, 
think while doing it, and figure on the best ways of doing 
it. Each move should count. 

Sales that do not stick. —A salesman should attempt to 
make the sale permanent at the time of the demonstration. 
This cannot always be done; hence exchanges and re¬ 
turns must be provided for. But while these are necessary 
to the welfare of the business, it must be remembered that 
the customer who is fully satisfied at the start and who stays 
satisfied, and not the one who makes exchanges, is the one 
who pays net profits to the house. Some salesmen forget 
this and take chances on the exchange office to complete their 
sales. Every exchange is an added expense, as is also the 
return of goods. 

Ignorance of stock. —Lack of knowledge of stock results 
in waste of time, labor, and loss of customers. Time and 
labor are wasted just when they are most valuable—when 
the customer is at hand. And customers leave because they 
think that the salesman does not have that which he can¬ 
not immediately find. The salesman should know his stock 
as a stenographer knows a typewriter keyboard. He should 
be able to find just what he wants without hesitation. A 
salesman with such knowledge cannot be spared from the 
business. 

Customers who do not come back. —It is well under¬ 
stood among business men that in these days of expensive 
advertising, the first orders often do not pay even the ex¬ 
penses. It is the “repeat orders” that yield the net profits. 
A store’s business must be built in most cases upon the 
regular trade of regular customers. When a customer 
does not come back, the store has lost a profit that is pro¬ 
portionate to the business that this one customer may in- 

116 


LEAKS AND LOSSES IN RETAIL STORES 


fluence. It may be only her own trade. It may mean the 
trade of several families; and the trade of each family 
may amount to from $10 up to $50 net profit every year. 

When good customers do not come back, it is usually 
because of discourtesy on the part of some one in the store, 
misunderstanding, or poor goods. Good salesmanship at¬ 
tempts to avoid all three. Courtesy cannot be over-empha¬ 
sized. It is a most vital element in business. Misunder¬ 
standings are likely to happen anywhere, but the good sales¬ 
man will go much farther than half the way to clear them 
up. Imperfect goods should never leave the store unless 
imperfection is fully explained to the customer. Such pol¬ 
icies will help to hold trade. 


CHAPTER XI 

WINDOW DISPLAY AND OTHER AIDS IN SELLING 

Helps for the salesman. —So far, we have considered the 
salesman and his work solely by themselves. We have rep¬ 
resented him as making sales without assistance of any kind 
except the appeal of the goods to the customer. In most 
stores, however, the salesman’s battle is not nearly so lonely 
as this. The store is generally constructed as advanta¬ 
geously as possible for the selling. The goods are appro¬ 
priately displayed on counters, shelves, and other fixtures. 
The windows are used to call the attention of the passer¬ 
by to the qualities and prices of articles in such a way as 
to appeal to all possible customers. And the salesman’s 
power is increased in range by the use of newspaper and 
other forms of advertising. 

Two important principles. —In the plans made for a 
store there are two principles that must be held to con¬ 
stantly. The first is that everything attempted should serve 
the main purpose of the business, and the second is that 
every store activity should be so directed as to meet with 
popular approval or satisfaction. The retail store is a selling 
institution. Its main purpose is to' serve the public by sell¬ 
ing to it such goods as are needed in the line that the store 
has chosen to carry. Since its purpose is to sell, every plan 
for the store, every improvement, should be made to aid 
directly or indirectly in selling. The appearance of the 
store, the internal arrangement, the goods display, the win- 

118 


WINDOW DISPLAY AND AIDS IN SELLING 


dow display, and the advertising in a retail business exist 
only for one reason—to assist in the sale of goods to the 
public. 

Importance of manner of selling. —People need goods, 
and they want to buy goods, but, as we have seen, the way 
in which these goods are sold is important to them. Not 
only that, but the way in which their attention is called to 
the goods by advertising or window display and the sur¬ 
rounding conditions at the time the sale is made, are, as 
most merchants will now agree, very important factors. 

The application of psychology. —These helps for the 
salesmen, then, must be contrived to fit human nature and 
to fit human nature in the most agreeable manner. Selling 
is largely a matter of creating a favorable impression in th^ 
mind of the customer. The salesman who is a practical 
psychologist works insistently toward this end. His task 
is much easier if he has been given good assistance—if the 
advertising and display have been so well done as to have 
created a good impression before the sale over the counter 
begins. These helps—advertising, window-trimming, store 
appearance, and store display—like salesmanship itself, are 
based upon psychology, and the principles that we found 
true for selling will be found equally true in their application 
to these helps. 

The salesman and his interests. —The most tangible 
forms of salesmen’s helps are, perhaps, newspaper adver¬ 
tising, window display, and the display of goods inside the 
store. The average salesman may have little supervision 
over some of these helps, but certainly he has an immediate 
interest in goods display inside the store; and, just as cer¬ 
tainly, he will be a better salesman if he takes an intelligent 
interest in the other activities of the store that are designed 
to aid him in his work. 

Underlying all forms of display, and also underlying 
many other kinds of helps in selling, there are certain prim 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


ciples that are applied, either consciously or unconsciously, 
by those who are most successful in the various activities 
of a retail store. Before the several important kinds of 
helps in selling are considered in any detail, we shall lay 
the foundation for them by considering some of the prin¬ 
ciples that must be applied if the salesmen’s helps are to be 
as effective as they might be. 

Art in business. —Arrangement of material—whether of 
drygoods, hats, stationery, ornaments, hardware, or any¬ 
thing else—or the writing of an advertisement for a paper 
so as to appeal favorably to the human eye, must not de¬ 
part from certain principles. There are great differences 
among individuals as to their likes and dislikes, but there 
are certain points at which most minds come together. 
These have been referred to as instincts. No one knows 
why certain combinations or lines or forms are agreeable, 
while others are disagreeable; nor why certain combinations 
of color are agreeable or disagreeable to nearly all people. 
Psychologists have not yet solved these questions. But 
the facts are evident, and the application of these facts con¬ 
stitutes art. Painting, sculpture, and architecture yield 
beautiful creations that everybody enjoys because the artists 
know the principles well and can apply them. The purpose 
of the salesman and the advertiser is different from the ar¬ 
tist’s, but the more art a man puts into his arrangement of 
goods or into the preparation of his advertising, in so far 
as it does not hide his main purpose of making sales the 
more successful will he.be in making a favorable impression. 
It is likely that there can be too rnuch fine art—for ex¬ 
ample, in a background of a window display. In such a 
case the people will look at the background and not at the 
goods in front of it. But disregard of art in the arrange¬ 
ment of the background will likewise draw attention to 
the background rather than to the goods, and the result will 
then be disagreeable to the onlooker. He will not see the 


120 


WINDOW DISPLAY AND AIDS IN SELLING 


goods, for he will turn away at once and walk on. Art 
needs to be applied in such an unobtrusive way as to be 
itself inconspicuous, but so as to set off the goods to be sold 
to the best advantage. 

Principles of art. —We can only suggest briefly some of 
the principles of art and their applications to retail selling. 
To go into detail would require a volume on window dis¬ 
play alone and other volumes on advertising and store ar¬ 
rangement and display. The purpose here is to give a 
sufficient knowledge of these principles to enable the store 
salesman to apply them himself in the arrangement of goods 
in his department, and to enable him to have some under¬ 
standing of the work of the professional window-trimmer 
and of the professional advertising man. For those who 
wish to carry the study further, there are many good books 
on the subject. 

Harmony. —The first principle of art applicable to mer¬ 
chandising is this: In all arrangements of fixtures, goods, 
ornaments, and so on, there should be harmony. The 
tests of harmony are two—efficiency or usefulness, and 
beauty. Applying this principle to the store, we may say 
that every article or fixture therein must, first of all, be 
useful—the more useful, the better; second, it should be 
as pleasing in appearance as possible, considering its pur¬ 
pose. The goods you have for sale that most nearly com¬ 
ply with this principle sell the most readily. No matter 
what the fashion may be, the instinct for harmony is al¬ 
ways more or less present; and appeals to points of use¬ 
fulness and beauty, closely related, are not likely to be 
amiss. 

Order. —A second principle of art is that of order. 
Nearly every one has an instinct that causes him to admire 
orderly arrangement—“a place for everything and every¬ 
thing in its place.” This instinct is likely to be particularly 
strong among the successful classes of people, and possibly 

I2J 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


there is some significance in this connection. The order 
instinct may have been one reason for their success. Good 
order permits the eye to begin at some definite point and 
then to trace its way onward easily. It is always noticeable 
that goods sell better when arranged in order than when 
thrown into a jumbled heap. Ordered arrangement tempts 
the eye to look; disorder tires the eye, and the customer 
moves on. In the best ordered arrangement of stock or of 
displays of goods on a counter, on a rack, or in a window, 
one article leads to another. The eye is drawn on and on 
to see the whole. The object is clear. Somewhere in the 
display there may be just the article that will rouse the 
interest and desire of the customer. 

Meaning. —A third principle of art is that every arrange¬ 
ment or display should have meaning . It should stand for 
some one thing; in other words, it should express something. 
To show a man’s shoe, a hammer, a piece of soap, and some- 
barn paint in the same display means no one thing; it is 
simply a mass of unrelated objects. There is much dis¬ 
play to be found in stores that means just as little to the 
average onlooker. As an illustration of display with mean¬ 
ing, consider a window that contains, for example, a great 
variety of household articles, such as paring knives, strain¬ 
ers, enameled ware, measures, spoons, kitchen knives, cake- 
tins, etc. Meaning is evident. To everyone and especially 
the housekeeper, there is suggested the needs of the kitchen. 
The housekeeper will look to see if there is some new article 
to be had that will serve her better than her home equipment. 
In other cases there will be recalled the need for articles 
that have been broken, lost, or worn out in the home. Al¬ 
though, as has been stated, this sort of display does have 
meaning, the meaning may be somewhat weakened by the 
great variety. Good, orderly arrangement will assist in mak¬ 
ing the meaning clear. If the window could be trimmed so as 
to represent a miniature kitchen, completely equipped, with 


122 


WINDOW DISPLAY AND AIDS IN SELLING 


everything in its place, the meaning would become still 
more obvious. 

On the other hand, a different, but strong meaning could 
be given to such a display by suspending a card centrally 
over all with some such inscription as the following: 


Any Article in this Window 
10c 

Come In 


Meaning is given to displays by building them around sea¬ 
sonal and other interesting events in the community. Au¬ 
tumn, winter, Easter, spring, summer, holidays, weddings, 
work, and sport—all suggest the need of various kinds of 
goods to various classes of people. Advertising and win¬ 
dow display become significant and, therefore, interesting 
to the prospective customer when the display suggests these 
seasons or events. The train of thought suggested returns 
in a moment to the idea of the need for the goods. This 
may be the first time that the customer has thought of his 
need. The advertising or display has set him thinking. A 
sale is likely to follow. 

Displays without meaning may not be entirely valueless 
though they are almost always uninteresting. They may 
serve at least one useful purpose, namely, to notify the 
public that the store has the displayed goods on sale. This 
is something but it is neither art nor salesmanship. Mean¬ 
ingless display brings in no customers except those who 
have of their own accord discovered their needs. Artists 
carry this principle to the extent that every line, color, orna¬ 
ment, form, or arrangement must have meaning. Applica- 


123 



RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


tion of this principle to selling cannot fail to be of great 
value. 

Lines. —It will be remembered that every impression made 
on the mind produces some kind of feeling, either of pleas¬ 
ure or of displeasure. Even so simple a thing as the sight of 
a line creates some responsive feeling. Though the effect of 
one line may be very slight, the effect of continuous impres¬ 
sions from lines is sure to be felt either as agreeable or as 
disagreeable. Different kinds of lines have different effects. 
Horizontal, straight, clearly defined lines give the impression 
of quiet and peace or rest; vertical lines produce a feeling 
of reliability; diagonal or oblique lines suggest movement or 
action. A broken line gives the feeling of interest, but if its 
breaks are frequent and the directions taken are monoto¬ 
nously similar, the interest grows into irritation. A thin, 
ripply, broken line makes many persons nervous. But a 
gently waving line is the most attractive of all. Artists say 
there is more formal beauty in the letter S than in any other 
letter because it is made up of such waves. 

These facts become significant when we stop to think 
that every fixture is bounded by lines. Our goods are 
arranged in lines; the patterns in the goods and the out¬ 
line shapes of the goods are lines. It is easy to see that the 
mental effects on a customer who sees the various kinds of 
lines mentioned, may be such as to cause the sale to succeed 
or fail. 

Surfaces. —Among the various shaped surfaces, the 
square and circle are the least interesting. Variations of 
the circle into ellipses and ovals may become very pleasing. 
Curved figures are, on the whole, more pleasing than 
straight line figures. Of four-sided figures, the oblong is 
the most pleasing, and careful experiments have shown that 
this form looks best when the length is about one and two- 
thirds times the width. This is found to be true for nearly 
all people, so this shape has been called the “golden sec- 


124 


WINDOW DISPLAY AND AIDS IN SELLING 


tion.” Illustrations of its many uses may be seen in call¬ 
ing cards, envelopes, pictures, show cards, book pages, 
magazine and newspaper pages, advertising copy, table tops, 
window frames, window display, units, etc.; and in archi¬ 
tecture it appears in a hundred different ways. The man 
who is going to plan or arrange displays, fixtures, or furni¬ 
ture for a store will find a study of the adaptation of the 
“golden section” of practical value. There are other shapes 
that are attractive in appearance, but none that are so gen¬ 
erally applicable in so many directions. 

Masses. —The art principles affecting the arrangement of 
masses are closely applicable to the display of goods. The 
sphere and the cube, like the circle and the square, are 
generally dull and uninteresting forms; hence few group¬ 
ings of goods in such units should be attempted. The tri¬ 
angle and the star are good forms and are often used; 
equally good, of course, are the pyramid and cone. Per¬ 
haps these last two forms are in most common use. 

Balance. —In all arrangement of lines, surfaces, or 
masses, whenever more than one group is attempted, 
there should be such placing as to get balance or symmetry. 
The show case that has all the goods piled on one end 
lacks balance, as does the window that has its heaviest 
trim too far from the middle. The principle of good balance 
can be applied wherever stock is laid down or displayed. It 
is a principle of constant application in all good window 
displays and in all good advertising, no matter what the 
medium. 

Possibly to some it may seem impractical to deal with 
the refinements of art in a business like retail selling. If 
this thought is in anyone’s mind, let him remember this: 
The man who is successful in store display, in window 
trimming, or in any of the allied activities of a store, al¬ 
ways applies the common principles of art in his daily 
work. If he does not apply them, he is not successful. 


125 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


He may not know that he is applying them; he may never 
have studied them; he may use them unconsciously. But, 
consciously or unconsciously, he applies them; for suc¬ 
cess in his work is founded on them. This is not debatable. 
It is an undoubted fact. Therefore some study of art 
principles is very much worth while for every salesman 
who wants to advance. 

Effect of colors. —We have seen that lines, surfaces, and 
masses have certain mental effects. The same thing is 
true of colors. Colors have a direct effect on the feel¬ 
ings. Various tests have been made to see what colors, if 
any, might be called the favorites of most people. The 
results are not conclusive, but both red and blue rank high 
in the list. For wearing apparel, black and blue predomi¬ 
nate, but this may be due largely to custom. It seems 
that almost any color can be made attractive to most people 
by using it in the right quantity and in combination with 
other colors of the right kinds. 

Light is always agreeable. 

Glitter, gleam, and luster always attract attention, and 
gold is a color that “goes well with anything.” 

Red is a warm, exciting color, and people think of it as 
a symbol of blood, battle, love, and action. 

Yellow is the brightest of all the colors. It is joyous 
and uplifting. It also is exciting; but it symbolizes dis¬ 
honor and jealousy. 

Green is cool, hopeful, and inspiring, a symbol of spring. 
It is appreciated much more in cities than in the country, 
and more in spring than at any other time. 

Blue is cool, calm, deep, still, and solid. It is the symbol 
of constancy. 

White impresses one with the feeling of quiet joy, and 
suggests symbolically the idea of purity. 

Gray is sober and quiet. It suggests neatness, delicacy, 
and refinement. 


126 


WINDOW DISPLAY AND AIDS IN SELLING 


Black is melancholy and sober, but of great strength. 
It is a symbol of grief and death. No color has so much 
power to impress as black. Black and white in contrast is 
the most easily and clearly distinguishable of combinations. 

Color harmony. —To assist the salesman, window trim¬ 
mer, or decorator in grouping his goods and colors in the 
most effective manner, Plate II shows a complete color 
chart indicating the results of combining any two ordinary 
colors. 

Optical illusion. —There are certain optical illusions of 
which the store decorator or trimmer should be aware. 
For example, yellow is about twelve times more forceful in 
carrying power than blue. Because yellow is the brightest 
color, a little of it goes a long way with other colors. 
Red, orange, yellow, and to some extent brown and green, 
are colors that seem to come near to the eyes—nearer by 
thirty per cent, than white. Blue, gray, blue-green, and 
violet are colors that recede from the eyes. As an illus¬ 
tration of this principle, a room with red walls appears 
smaller than it really is, while a room finished in blue 
will appear considerably larger than it really is. Every¬ 
one should know that large patterns tend to appear nearer 
than small ones. Vertical lines make height appear greater 
than it really is, while horizontal lines shorten the appear¬ 
ance of height. A true square does not appear to the eye to 
be square, and is, therefore, not so pleasing as one that 
is only apparently true. By making the two sides slightly 
shorter than the top and bottom, the matter will be reme¬ 
died. There is always a tendency to over-estimate the 
height. 

Effective display and store helps. —In the preceding 
paragraphs a few of the principles that underlie effective 
display have been suggested. They are all worthy of the 
salesman’s careful study. In this text they cannot be treated 
in detail. The purpose in suggesting them has been to 


127 


CHART OF COLOR COMBINATIONS 


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WINDOW DISPLAY AND AIDS IN SELLING 

arouse interest in them, to show their importance, and to 
indicate to the ambitious salesman one field of further 
study that will pay rich dividends. 

The principles of art and display find their application 
in the various kinds of salesmen’s helps that were mentioned 
at the beginning of the chapter. One of them—newspaper 
and other forms of periodical advertising—is treated in 
some detail in a later chapter. A few of the other sales¬ 
men’s helps are suggested in the following paragraphs. In 
the case of some of them, the opportunity of applying the 
principles of art may seem very remote; sometimes, of 
course, these principles cannot be applied at all; but in 
most of the salesmen’s helps the principles that we have 
been considering have a very real and very obvious appli¬ 
cation. 

The store’s location. —The first of the salesmen’s helps 
is an advantageous location for the store. The number of 
people who visit a store, the interest with which they will 
view its offerings, the ease with which the salesman will 
be able to appeal to them—all these things depend first 
upon whether the store is advantageously situated or not. 
Several large companies, especially the chain store syndi¬ 
cates—five- and ten-cent stores, cigar stores, grocery com¬ 
panies, and restaurants—station men to count all passers- 
by at each place under consideration for lease or purchase. 
The time at which the count is made and the period for 
which it is continued are carefully selected so as to show 
what is the average or normal number of people passing 
the location during a given period. Such investigations 
frequently extend over several days so as to make sure of 
a fair average per day. 

Besides numbers, these stores also investigate the char¬ 
acter of the people who pass by, their object in passing the 
given place, whether the reason is permanent or merely 
temporary, the economic position or wealth of the passers- 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


by, and their purchasing power. A store established after 
such studies as these, and carefully provided with all the 
modern aids to selling, if it has good salesmen becomes 
a scientific selling institution. 

The store exterior. —The external appearance of the 
store is important. Cleanliness is the most essential point. 
Clean windows, clean sidewalks, and clean looking door¬ 
ways are things that create favorable impressions for the 
store in the minds of most people; they never create un¬ 
favorable impressions. To this point we have already 
alluded. Next to cleanliness comes color. Fresh, bright 
exteriors are powerful in attracting favorable attention, 
and they invite or attract the customer. As to proper 
colors for stores, these should, first of all, be in harmony 
with the kind of goods offered for sale and with the selling 
policy. There is, perhaps, no conclusive reason why second¬ 
hand goods and dingy looking stores should always be 
associated, nor why the idea of cheap goods and poor 
qualities should occur to us when we look at a faded, run¬ 
down, rusty-looking building. But it is a fact that these 
associations are frequent. The gray stone, dignified front 
of the high-grade store, and the gold and maroon fronts 
of the syndicate five- and ten-cent stores, both express their 
policies effectively. Both are excellent for their respective 
purposes. Solidity and substantiality may be strongly sug¬ 
gested by the structure and coloring of the store itself. 

The window. —The good display window is ordinarily ob¬ 
long in shape, with dimensions corresponding to those of the 
“golden section”—that is, with the length approximately 
one and two-thirds times the width. The height of the 
lower edge above the sidewalk depends somewhat upon 
the kind of goods the store usually shows. Eighteen or 
twenty inches represents a good average height. The 
frame of the window should be simple, neat, easily cleaned, 
and in keeping with the front of the store. Many splendid 


130 


WINDOW DISPLAY AND AIDS IN SELLING 


plate-glass windows are spoiled by poor frames. As much 
care should be used in choosing the proper frame for a 
window as would be used in getting a good picture framed, 
for the window display is to be a three dimension picture 
or tableau. The display surface behind the glass should 
be suited to the business. In drygoods stores it should be 
about six feet deep, and floored with parquetry and green 
carpet. The background is important. Its material and 
colorings serve to set off the goods to be shown. Mir¬ 
rors are effective for coats, suits, and other women’s wear. 
Wood panels are effective for dress goods, notions, and 
other drygoods. Various textiles and paper coverings 
and all sorts of ornaments have been devised to decorate 
windows. Many of them are good. Great care should be 
used in their selection, however, because many window 
effects have been spoiled by bad taste in dressing. 

Purpose of window display. —A commercial window 
display is intended to catch the attention of passers-by and 
to hold that attention until favorable interest is aroused. 
If successful, it pulls people into the store to examine and 
to buy the things seen in the window. It appeals to the eye, 
and seeks to reach favorable and habitual channels of think¬ 
ing in the minds of passers-by, by the use of reason, sugges¬ 
tion, or command. With some goods it may be possible to 
reason by means of a window display as forcibly as with 
words, concerning quality, construction, or price. In other 
cases the display suggests the satisfaction that the onlooker 
would have were he the owner of the goods. And in 
others it dictates in a friendly way, and directs the onlooker 
“to get this or that and be in fashion.” Which method 
shall be used is a matter for study. The selection of method 
depends upon the goods displayed and the classes of peo¬ 
ple to whom the appeal is made. Whatever purpose is 
selected, the trimmer seeks to express it clearly, and with¬ 
out any accompanying features which may cause mental 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


objections, dislike, or distaste. He makes every detail aid 
him in his purpose—the goods displayed, the window frame, 
the front of the building, the lighting of the window, the 
display surface, the fixtures, and the background. 

Attracting attention. —Window dressing is clearly an 
application of the principles of art. A window display is 
to be judged first of all by its power to compel attention. 
If it does not do that, it is valueless. In the second place, 
this attention must be relevant to something connected 
with the business. Anyone can get attention by putting into 
his windows something unusual; as, for example, a cage of 
monkeys, a humorous cartoon, or a collection of coins. But 
these do not sell goods unless the store has for sale the 
articles shown. The window display draws attention in 
order that the store and its salesmen may sell goods. In 
the third place, the attention attracted must be favorable. 
It will do no good to the store to have people stop to look 
at a piece of goods that is badly worn, soiled, or faded. 
The onlookers will receive only negative impressions from 
such goods, and trade will go to other stores. 

What constitutes good display. —The window display 
must be orderly and simple; it must have meaning, as has 
been shown, and it must be appropriate. It should be 
changed often enough so that people who pass it regularly 
will fall into the habit of looking for the new in it every 
time they pass. This means that it should be changed not 
less than once a week, and twice a week would be better. 
While the trimmer must apply the principles of art in 
getting his form and color effects-, he must seek to intro¬ 
duce new elements as often as possible in form, color, ar¬ 
rangement, grouping, and use of open space between groups. 
Principles of art leave a very wide latitude for originality. 
Many trimmers use ready-made designs and plans provided 
for them in books and trade papers. Others receive com¬ 
plete outlines from manufacturers. The latter are gener- 


132 


WINDOW DISPLAY AND AIDS IN SELLING 


ally good, and the number of companies furnishing them 
is constantly increasing. Book and trade paper plans are 
most valuable as suggestions. However, to take what has 
been used, even with success, in one place and to try to 
apply it without change in another may not be wise. The 
skillful window-trimmer will study many display sugges¬ 
tions ; he will visit as many cities and other stores as possi¬ 
ble, and then he will apply the ideas he has picked up, in the 
way most suited to his own business and trade. 

The occupation of window-trimmer, like that of demon¬ 
strator, is a step up for the store salesman. Every sales¬ 
man or saleswoman who has artistic talent and an eye for 
good form and color arrangement, should undertake the 
study of window-trimming after learning all that is possi¬ 
ble about the art of selling. A knowledge of personal sales¬ 
manship is fundamental to window-trimming, as well as to 
all higher store positions. 

The entrance.—The arrangement of the entrance to a 
store may be either a help or a hindrance to the salesman. 
The number of store visitors and the amount of sales will 
be increased if customers find it easy to enter a store. 
The doors should be situated with reference to the possi¬ 
bilities of accommodating the public. They should swing 
easily, lightly, and without friction or noise. They should 
be amply wide, and should have no projections likely to 
catch and tear the clothing of those who enter or pass out. 
A store that can only be entered by means of a flight of 
steps is at a disadvantage as compared with a competing 
store in which the entrance is on a level with the sidewalk. 
In small towns where each store has an established clien¬ 
tele, this disadvantage is not serious; but it is likely to 
become serious in larger places where buyers “shop” from 
store to store. 

Arrangement of departments— It is important that the 
interior of the store be so arranged as to be of the greatest 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


possible aid in selling. In the first place, the arrangement 
should be such as to make a good first impression on the 
visitor. It should be easy for him to get an idea of the 
floor plan—to see the location of the different departments 
so that he may lose no time in getting what he wants. Low 
cases behind the counters aid in making this possible. Well 
displayed goods, and plenty of prominent and legible show 
cards also help. New and attractive goods should be placed 
near at hand. Other considerations demand that the goods 
near the entrance should be such as require little personal 
salesmanship. In a drygoods store, notions and novelties 
of various kinds seem to serve this purpose best. They 
make a good effect on the eye, and many visitors who drop 
in from the street for some reason, not necessarily to buy, 
are often attracted by some little novelty which they may 
purchase then and there. 

In any store where men’s goods are kept these goods 
should be placed near the door. Often, if placed farther 
within, a man will hesitate about going in at all. High- 
priced goods requiring careful selling should be located in 
a part of the store where there is the least noise and passing 
of people. Among such articles may be named ladies’ 
suits, coats, furs, rugs, wall coverings, pictures, sewing 
machines, musical instruments, complicated tools, machin¬ 
ery, etc. 

Interior appearance. —Some merchants want a store to 
look like a parlor. Others want it to look like a business 
place where there is something going on every minute. 
The former are appealing to exclusive trade; the latter to 
the masses. In most cities there is really so little exclu¬ 
sive trade as to make the former policy, carried out by 
itself, unprofitable. Traders from the exclusive classes are 
proverbially fickle. They often transfer their trade as the 
result of a whim. The average store will do best which 
attempts to serve the average citizen in the best way. The 


134 


WINDOW DISPLAY AND AIDS IN SELLING 


exclusive classes should be encouraged to come, to be sure, 
but the policy of the store should be democratic and not 
aristocratic under most conditions. Therefore the store 
which never tries to hide the fact that it is a store, but, 
instead, makes the most of that fact, is likely to do the 
best. 

Show the goods. —It may be stated as a general prin¬ 
ciple that a store should show as much of the goods it 
has in stock as possible—not inclosed in cases and packages, 
but displayed so that people can see them easily. There 
is a question as to whether certain goods should be kept 
under glass cases or on open counters or tables where they 
can be handled by customers. Some goods to be sure, can¬ 
not stand much handling because of the ease with which 
they tarnish or soil or become damaged in some other way. 
But, on the whole, most merchants agree that more goods 
are sold where customers are allowed to handle and look 
them over, than where everything is under glass. There 
are, no doubt, exceptions to this; but there is good psychob 
ogy favoring the open counter. No customer is so well 
sold as when he sells himself. 

Show cards. —Show cards are one of the most valuable 
of all store aids to selling. Every store can use to advan¬ 
tage a great number of show cards of various kinds— 
large ones to designate the departments and the goods sold 
therein; others to describe goods (silent salesmen) ; others 
outlining the policy of the store towards its customers; and 
others merely giving prices. There seems to be no good 
reason now why a one-price house should not have price 
cards on all displayed goods. There is every reason for 
this practice. Price is an important consideration for buy¬ 
ers in at least seventy-five per cent, of all purchases. Most 
persons do not care to be led too deeply into an interest in 
a thing without knowing whether the price lies within their 
means or not. The price card on the goods answers a 


135 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


question bound to arise sooner or later, and answers it be¬ 
fore it is asked. 

Above all, show cards should be plain, easy to read, and 
easy to understand. Black letters on white cardboard is 
the standard and most legible arrangement. The message 
on a show card needs to be so brief that it can be read 
almost at a glance. Perhaps no field of store advertising 
offers such opportunities for effective, terse expression as 
the planning and writing of show cards. The ranks of 
good show-card writers are by no means overcrowded. 
The good salesman who possesses some artistic talent can 
increase his efficiency greatly by studying the principles of 
show-card design and writing. 

Other aids to selling. —It is not possible to discuss all 
the activities of a store that aid in selling. Everything the 
store does should be designed to increase sales, either di¬ 
rectly or indirectly. The store’s advertising is by no means 
confined to newspaper publicity or to window displays. 
There are many other kinds of advertising, and all of them 
have more sales as their one purpose. For instance, the bar¬ 
gain department is primarily an advertisement. It is in¬ 
tended to get people into the store—to make them buy the 
bargains, to be sure, but also to make them buy other 
goods at regular prices. To be most effective the bargain 
department must really offer bargains, and there should 
be such frequent additions and changes in the offerings as 
to make the department interesting even to the customer 
who calls most frequently. The fundamental selling argu¬ 
ment of the bargain department is price, and in no part of 
the store is the price card so absolutely necessary. Open 
shelves and counters where customers may see and handle 
the goods are the rule. 

The location cf the bargain department is important in 
a store plan, and the arguments for one or another loca* 
tion should be carefully weighed. A bargain department 

136 


WINDOW DISPLAY AND AIDS IN SELLING 


is better patronized than any other part of the store, so far 
as numbers of patrons are concerned. If it is placed near 
the main store entrance, the sight of the moving crowds 
near the bargain tables will draw the attention of many 
who pass on the outside, and who will be attracted by 
curiosity to come in. On the other hand, the net profits 
per sale in the bargain department are likely to be small; 
hence the merchant usually thinks of that department chiefly 
as an advertisement—to draw patrons into the store. If 
the people attracted by the bargains are to buy goods in 
other departments as well, the bargain department should be 
so situated that a customer must pass through some of the 
Other departments before and after visiting it. This gives 
the regular store display a chance to impress the customer 
and to suggest the need for other goods than those wanted 
on the bargain counters. For this reason, the bargain de¬ 
partment is usually situated in the back of the store, or on 
some other than the main floor. 

Two other aids to salesmen are the entertainment fea¬ 
tures provided by the store and demonstrations of goods 
suitable for demonstration purposes. Entertainment fea¬ 
tures—rest rooms, music, etc.—are excellent in so far as 
they draw people into the store and do not take the atten¬ 
tion of store visitors from the goods on sale. Anything 
that contributes to the comfort of patrons is good. But if 
people are drawn into a store in order to see or hear or do 
something that has no real connection with the goods offered 
for sale, there may be differences of opinion as to the value 
of the attraction. 

The last salesmen’s help to be mentioned is the store 
demonstration. A demonstration is really a special form of 
applied salesmanship. It seeks to get the undivided atten¬ 
tion and interest of prospective customers, to suggest uses, 
to excite the onlookers’ imaginations, and to prove the 
quality of the goods. Every display is, in a sense, a demon- 


137 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


stration, but a demonstration is not at its best until the 
attractive power of the goods themselves is supplemented 
by the salesman’s power of description. Demonstrations 
of store goods are splendid aids in selling. Every store 
should look carefully into the advantages of frequent dem¬ 
onstrations. Demonstrations are used widely, but not nearly 
so widely as they should be. In nearly every store ther<\ 
is an unused opportunity to show clothing on living models 
to demonstrate food stuffs, or to present some other kinds 
of goods in such a way as to make the most effective appeal 
to possible purchasers. 


CHAPTER XII 

RELATION OF THE SALESMAN TO HIS EMPLOYER AND 
TO THE PUBLIC 

The salesman a representative of his house. —When a 
merchant hires a salesman, he does so, theoretically at least, 
because he cannot be in all places himself. He must have 
help. The salesman takes the place of the manager of the 
business and acts for him in the capacity of a representa¬ 
tive. A salesman’s salary is his remuneration for thus 
representing the owner. In a very true sense he is success¬ 
ful only in so far as he successfully represents his em¬ 
ployer. 

The salesman’s service to his employer. —When a sales¬ 
man accepts employment in a store, he contracts to give the 
following things to his employer: 

1. Certain hours of time during which he is supposed 
to be on duty. 

2. Certain services to be performed during that time in 
the best manner possible. 

3. A certain mental attitude towards the business, con¬ 
sisting of a desire to see the business succeed and a will¬ 
ingness to help it succeed. 

4. A certain attitude towards his work that will lead 
him to use such expressions as “our store,” “our goods,” 
and the pronoun “we” instead of “they” when referring to 
the place where he is employed. It does not matter what 
salary a man is paid; the contract is essentially the same 


139 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMEN 1 


in every case, and must have been accepted by the sales' 
man before he could have obtained his position. His con¬ 
tinuance in that position must be based upon the proof or at 
least the assumption that the salesman is fulfilling his part 
of the contract. 

A recent business magazine contained this statement, 
which expresses the idea exactly: “If you are going to 
work for a man work for him. Speak well of him, stand 
by him, and stand by the institution he represents. An 
ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. If you 
want to condemn, resign first and then condemn to your 
heart’s content.” Also, “Don’t kick about the boss behind 
his back. If you can’t say anything good, keep still.” 

Do your best for your own sake. —Besides the reason 
already given for a salesman’s always doing his best— 
which is only his plain, common, everyday duty—there is 
another reason. This second reason is that if a man does 
his best continually, he is really keeping in training for 
better things; while the man who habitually does less than 
he can do, shortly finds that his best has dropped down 
instead of risen. For his own sake, then, every salesman 
ought to do his best at his work. 

Co-operation. —Personal service in a retail store means, 
among other things, getting along well with other employes 
—assisting them in the interests of the house. In a large 
sense, civilization is measured by how well people can get 
along with each other and can work together. Ability to 
co-operate is a sign of culture. The individual who can only 
work by himself and for himself is something of a savage. 
He is crudely developed. 

Store rules. —The personal service that a salesman agrees 
to give includes cheerful compliance with the rules, policies, 
and traditions of the store. As far as possible, he should 
be given the reasons for all rules and customs; this is not 
always done, and when it is not, the new salesman is likely 


140 


RELATIONS OF THE SALESMAN 


to look upon some of the regulations as unreasonable. 
There are some practices in some retail stores that need 
to be abandoned, but for the most part, the rules are a 
development of long experience, and express tersely what 
has been found the safest policy to follow. The salesman 
should aim to acquaint himself with all of the rules as 
soon as possible, and, since he is the employe and not the 
employer, he should comply with them completely. Sug¬ 
gestions for changes, when made in the right way, are 
usually welcome. 

The things that are put down in store rule-books vary 
considerably, but the principles back of the rule-books are 
generally the same. There are four things that are gener¬ 
ally demanded of retail salespeople: punctuality, care of 
stock, industry, and politeness. 

The store wants its salespeople to be regular in attend¬ 
ance and to be punctual in arriving and leaving the store 
according to the store schedule; to perform the regular 
duties of the store in quick time; to begin the day’s work 
without unnecessary delay; to report calls for merchandise 
as soon as possible to the buyer; to make known errors 
in transactions at once; to replenish stock at the right time; 
to give any information the store manager may need as soon 
as such information has been gained. In summary, the 
salesman needs to be always ready. 

Proper care of stock means that it must be kept in order, 
free from dust, and looking its very best. Proper care of 
stock certainly means also that the department should be 
kept fresh and clean, that the displays should be attractive, 
and that everything should be ready for doing business 
with little likelihood that there will be waste of either time 
or energy when the actual selling begins. 

Store rules about industry mean that the salesman owes 
his best service to the customer and that he must do his 
best to make sales. There need be but few idle moments 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


in any store, for, when there is no selling to be done, the 
salesman can spend his time in improving his department. 

In requiring politeness, the store expects that the sales¬ 
man’s manners should always be the best—that he should 
be a gentleman at all times and under all conditions. 

Some years ago a large industrial corporation in Ohio 
published the following rules for the benefit of its employes. 
The ideas are valuable and are interestingly stated. They 
are full of valuable suggestions for retail salespeople. 


Our Ten Commandments 

Rule I. Don’t lie—it wastes our time and yours. We’re 
sure to catch you in the end, and that’s the 
wrong end. 

Rule II. Watch your work and not the clock. A long 
day’s work makes a Jong day short, and a short 
day’s work makes our face long. 

Rule III. Give us more than we expect, and we’ll pay you 
more than you expect. We can afford to in¬ 
crease your pay if you increase our profits. 

Rule IV. You owe so much to yourself that you can’t 
afford to owe anybody else. Keep out of debt 
or keep out of the shops. 

Rule V. Dishonesty is never an accident. Good men, 
like good women, can’t see temptation when 
meet it. 

Rule VI. Don’t do anything here which hurts your self- 
respect. The employe who is willing to steal for 
us is capable of stealing from us. 

Rule VII. Mind your own business, and in time you’ll 
have a business of your own to mind. 

Rule VIII. It’s none of our business what you do at 
night. BUT if dissipation affects what you do 
the next day, and you do half as much as we 
demand, you’ll last half as long as you hoped. 


J.42 


RELATIONS OF THE SALESMAN 


Rule IX. Don’t tell us what we’d like to hear, but what 
we ought to hear. 

Rule X. Don’t kick if we kick—if you’re worth while 
correcting, you’re worth while keeping. We 
don’t waste time cutting specks out of rotten 
apples. 

Not hard to get into high class of salesmen. —The 

salesman who really wishes to succeed at his profession 
can do so perhaps more easily than in any other calling. 
There are great numbers of poor salespeople and great 
numbers of fairly good salespeople, but very few really 
good or excellent ones. The poor ones are for the most 
part those who know nothing about their goods that most 
customers do not themselves know, and they care nothing 
for the business. The fairly good ones are interested in 
the business in a way, and through long experience may 
have picked up considerable information about their goods, 
but this information is not in any organized form. They 
may be good people, always on time, loyal, and ready to 
help; but they lack the ambition to study their work, which 
is the mark of an expert salesman. Two years of close, 
concentrated study of a line and its selling problems are 
enough in most cases to give any bright young person a 
start in the science of selling that will send him rapidly to 
the front. If the opportunity does not come in his own 
store, it will come somewhere else. 

How to improve in salesmanship. —To advance in sales¬ 
manship the man with ambition to succeed should do the 
following things: He should study the books dealing with 
the goods he handles, read the trade papers, and ransack the 
public libraries for help. He should write to the manu¬ 
facturers of his goods for information about them, ask 
questions of his superiors, of buyers, of traveling salesmen, 
and of anybody who might have some new information 


143 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 

to impart. Above all he should keep his eyes and mind 
open. Whenever the opportunity offers, he should visit 
other stores and let other clerks experiment on him, and he 
should analyze the feelings aroused in him by different 
kinds of selling methods. If possible, he should visit the 
places where the goods he handles are produced. 

Poorly paid salesmen may cost employer more than 
good salesmen. —Salaries are generally paid to salesmen on 
some basis that corresponds with their earnings for the 
store. There are in retail stores a good many poorly paid 
people; but this should be said for that condition—there 
are many five dollar a week salespeople who actually cost 
the firm more than those who are receiving ten or fifteen 
dollars per week. It is selling ability that counts, and 
selling ability depends upon the salesman’s knowledge of 
his business, his health, his ambition, and his direct and 
wasteless use of his time and labor. 

Relations to community. —Besides his duties to his house 
and to himself, the salesman has a definite place and defi¬ 
nite duty towards his community. Social relations are help¬ 
ful in gaining selling success. A good salesman always 
has many acquaintances, but like all other classes of people, 
he should choose his friends with care, for we are all judged 
by the friends we make and keep. The salesman should 
be of the social type, the kind that likes good company, 
but he should never let social duties encroach on his busi¬ 
ness so as to cut down his efficiency. Social ambitions 
are dangerous to selling success. An evening now and then 
at a social gathering, with plenty of nights intervening for 
quiet rest, is the best rule. If a salesman loses the sleep 
he needs, he will soon be only a poor order-taker. It 
takes live, wide-awake human energy to make sales. 

Salesmen and politics. —A salesman ought to take a citi¬ 
zen’s interest in all political matters and to vote for that 
which seems right and for the good of all at every oppor- 


144 


RELATIONS OF THE SALESMAN 


tunity, but he will spoil his usefulness as a salesman if he 
turns politician, or if he begins to talk politics. This al¬ 
ways makes enemies and creates dislike among some classes 
of people. A salesman is in a sense a public officer who 
should aim to serve all people alike. To take sides too 
strenuously with any party will hurt his efficiency. 

Be true salesmen. —The salesman should never try to 
appear what he is not. To be a good, honest, well-liked 
salesman is enough honor for anyone, and such a person 
has reason to feel proud of his condition. Be proud of 
your calling. Be jealous of the honor and good will that 
good salesmen are everywhere building up. 

Keep yourself strong. —The salesman should be a good 
business and moral example for his community. He should 
pay his debts promptly, live within his means, and live a 
clean moral life. No salesman can afford to take chances 
on injuring his efficiency by using any form of alcoholic 
beverages. It simply does not pay. Tobacco likewise 
hurts the efficiency of thousands of men. Perhaps you are 
only a mediocre salesman because of reduced energy and 
keenness of mind due to smoking. We know smoking has 
this effect on some people. As a business proposition, does 
it pay to take any chances with any habit that is question¬ 
able in its effects? 

Fight blue days. —Fight down blue days; struggle 
against the feeling that sometimes tempts one to say, “I 
can’t” “It can’t be done,” “Til wait till to-morrow,” and 
a number of other threadbare, backboneless expressions. 
Have faith. Believe in yourself, your employer, and your 
goods. Go to work every day with conviction that your 
work is good and your success certain. A noted sales man¬ 
ager once prepared a catechism, which he required each 
salesman to memorize and to repeat every morning before 
beginning work. It is said to have been wonderfully effec¬ 
tive. Suppose we change the questions so that they apply 


145 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


strictly to retail selling. Learn the catechism. Repeat it 
every morning. It cannot fail to increase your efficiency. 

Catechism for Salesmen 

Am I working for a good house? YES. 

Has my house the reputation of being one of the best in 
its line? YES. 

Is it the policy of the house to treat every customer cour¬ 
teously, and to deserve her future trade? YES. 

Am I going to put that policy into effect? YES. 

Do I owe my best services to my employer? YES. 

Am I going to do my best to-day? YES. 

Is salesmanship a big, worth-while work ? YES. 

Am I going to succeed? YOU BET I AM. 

Optimism. —Finally, be optimistic. The world is not 
such a bad place after all. In fact, it is just about what 
we make it, so far as we are concerned. Be bright. Let 
the sun shine in. Find the silver side when clouds gather. 
A great business manager of a chain of retail stores sent 
the following letter to every salesman in his employ. Read 
it slowly and carefully. 

Do You Belong to the Lodge in Which a Smiling Face 
Is the Only Requirement? 

There is no money necessary. 

There is no initiation ceremony. 

There is no password—regalia—dues or lodge room. 

This is all that is expected of a member: 

When he meets anyone who is grouchy, he smiles and 
asks, “Do you belong?” 

If the grouchy one has heard of the order, he is reminded 
that a smile must chase away the grouch. 

Greet everyone smilingly—it’s a great tonic—it pays a 
big dividend to both the giver and the receiver. 

146 


RELATIONS OF THE SALESMAN 


The wrong a man does in letting an unhappy expression 
stay on his face is not confined to himself but is a blighting 
influence on the health and spirits of everyone he meets. 

DO YOU BELONG? SMILE! The smile lets a light 
in on the darkened and depressed brain. 

DO YOU BELONG?—A SMILE PROVES THAT 
YOU DO; a frown is an admission that you don’t. 

Don’t ask, “Belong to what?”—the organization is name¬ 
less. 

Try to merit the privilege of membership by keeping 
unhappiness out of your face. 


CHAPTER XIII 

EFFICIENCY AND STORE ORGANIZATION 

New lines of business opportunity. —Much is now being 

said about efficiency in all lines of business management. 
Until recently business men in this country have given 
more thought to expansion than to intensive study of 
methods of improving their old holdings. With but few 
exceptions, the large fortunes of the United States have been 
accumulated by wise and fortunate extensions of capital 
into new fields and unworked fields, rather than by scientific 
management of the original enterprises. This has, natu¬ 
rally, been the case in a land where unworked natural re¬ 
sources existed in abundance. Now that free land has 
practically disappeared, the supplies of iron and coal are 
nearly all developed, and water power and other resources 
are absorbed in ownership, the masses of business men 
have been forced to turn from the former customary Amer¬ 
ican methods of investment. Young men are no longer ad¬ 
vised to “Go west and grow up with the country.” The 
West is already fairly well grown-up. The man with ambi¬ 
tion and capital no longer considers building a railroad 
through a wilderness which his vision foresees will some¬ 
time bloom with the products of civilization’s labor. There 
are no longer such wildernesses. It may almost be stated 
now that so far as trunk lines are concerned, the railroad 
systems of our country are nearly completed. It becomes 
less probable, with every passing year, that new bonanza 

148 


EFFICIENCY AND STORE ORGANIZATION 


mines of minerals are still to be discovered. The pros¬ 
pector has been replaced by the geologist, who figures out 
in advance, from certain general information he possesses 
regarding the geological formations of an area, the pos¬ 
sibility of finding valuable minerals. 

Intensive management. —So captains of industry are no 
longer the men who are hazarding their fortunes and their 
lives on the frontiers of civilization. The time has come 
for advance in another direction. The business man of 
vision and ambition, to-day turns his attention to the thing 
called efficiency. He seeks to cheapen the cost of production. 
As a result, invention, in the past said to be the offspring 
of necessity, has now come to be an occupation based on 
science. The capacity of machines is being increased many- 
fold, and the powers of labor realized more fully. Scien¬ 
tific management makes the most of tools, material, and of 
men. Rightly employed, it promises greater benefit to man¬ 
kind than any other industrial step that has ever been taken. 

Recent interest in scientific management. —There has 
recently been more attention given to this subject than 
ever before. This has been due quite largely to the pub¬ 
licity that was given to certain hearings before the Inter¬ 
state Commerce Commission during the season of 1910-11 
in which the railroads of the country asked that they might 
be allowed to increase their freight rates. The railroads 
attempted the explanation that such an increase was neces¬ 
sary in order to carry on transportation and make such im¬ 
provements as were necessary in track and rolling stock. 
Their opponents, the shippers of freight, through their attor¬ 
ney, Louis Brandeis of Boston, introduced the unique argu¬ 
ment, backed up by evidence of undisputed value, that if 
the railroads would but apply such principles of scientific 
management as had already proved effective in other sim¬ 
ilar lines, an increase in rates would be wholly unneces¬ 
sary in order to get the increased financial returns desired. 


149 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


He estimated that a saving of a million dollars per day could 
be effected readily. The Interstate Commerce Commission 
decided in favor of Mr. Brandeis. Since then, business 
magazines have teemed with articles upon efficiency and 
scientific management. Business men in all parts of the 
country have studied their own industries in the light of 
this new science. Much experimenting has been done. No 
doubt many rash, ill-timed beginnings have been made only 
to be followed by mistrust and ridicule; but scientific man¬ 
agement, in its right meaning, has come to stay. 

Scientific management in retailing. —The principles of 
this science are few and simple, but the methods required 
to obtain exact applications of the principles to a given 
business are often laborious, requiring much time, patience, 
and care. What these principles are need not here be 
considered, except as they may be applied to a retail busi¬ 
ness. The main features of any science are, first, the 
gathering together of the common experiences of those en¬ 
gaged in the same work; second, the analysis of these ex¬ 
periences to determine the reasons for the success of some 
methods of procedure and for the failure of others; and, 
third, a restatement of those reasons in such terms as to 
make them applicable elsewhere. These have been the 
aims of these chapters on retailing. It has been their pur¬ 
pose to bring home to the student business man, the lines 
along which efficient retailing is developing, its relations to 
other business and to society, and its relation to the science 
of psychology, economics, and sociology. It now remains to 
point out more definitely some of the means whereby the 
efficiency of a retail store may be increased. 

Efficiency engineers. —In the last few years it has become 
common for industrial and commercial establishments, for 
the purpose of increasing their efficiency, to call to their 
service for a time experts in their respective lines—men 
who can make careful studies and draw accurate conclu- 


EFFICIENCY AND STORE ORGANIZATION 


sions therefrom. Not only is such help called for by con¬ 
cerns when it becomes evident that they are in a bad way 
financially, but even more frequently it is called for by 
strong, virile, active businesses that are known to be doing 
well. These successful organizations recognize the pos¬ 
sibility of doing still better. Some years ago the mail-order 
house of Sears, Roebuck and Company paid $30,000 for 
an expert investigation of its business. The results were, 
no doubt, satisfactory; for the following increase in busi¬ 
ness has been phenomenal. There are hundreds of ex¬ 
perts in this country whose entire time is given to investiga¬ 
tion of this kind—to giving expert advice and suggestions. 
The name of “efficiency engineering” has been applied to 
their calling. 

Scientific study of a concern. —The first step in an in¬ 
vestigation such as a professional efficiency engineer would 
conduct is to analyze the business, determine what it has 
to do, and the means it has to do it with. The next step 
is to study each activity that is carried on, to see that it 
proceeds in a straight line towards its aim, and to be sure 
there shall be no wastes in motions or in materials. Such 
an investigation reveals the kind of organization of forces 
and materials that is necessary to the most economical per¬ 
formance of the work. Let us see what such an analysis 
will show for a retail store. 

Analysis of a retail store. —The work of a retail store 
is the buying and selling of goods so as to yield a profit 
for the house. To carry this on effectively, there must, 
then, be the goods that are bought and sold; there must be 
a building well adapted to storing and to selling goods; there 
must be a force of people working systematically to show, 
sell, and deliver the goods; there must be means of reaching 
the public to tell them about the goods the store has for 
sale; and there must be records to show whether the busi¬ 
ness is advancing or going backwards, and to relieve the 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


memory of the manager of a mass of important and valu¬ 
able information which it would be impossible for him to 
keep in mind. 

These five divisions—goods, store, employes, advertising, 
and bookkeeping—are usually cared for by four depart¬ 
ments. The selection, buying, and selling of the merchan¬ 
dise is put under a department headed by a so-called Mer¬ 
chandise Manager. The building, the systems of selling, 
and the hiring, dismissing, instructing, and disciplining of 
employes is made the work of an official called the Store 
Superintendent. The advertising is carried out under the 
direction of the Advertising Manager. And the bookkeeping 
is done in the Records Department, the chief of which is 
variously called auditor, head bookkeeper, chief accountant, 
records manager, etc. 

Retail store organization. —The student should study 
Plate III with care. Note the four department heads 
already referred to, and the relation of each to the general 
manager or the owner of the store. This plate is intended 
to represent a good retail store organization employing from 
twenty-five to two hundred people. With certain minor 
changes it is applicable to even smaller stores. It should 
be understood at once that each oblong does not necessarily 
represent a person. Rather, it represents a part of the 
work of the store. One man may hold several positions; 
for example, the general manager is commonly the mer¬ 
chandise manager of his store, and may also be the store 
superintendent. In very small stores, with only a few clerks, 
the general manager is usually all four of the department 
heads, and he is a buyer and salesman besides. On the 
other hand, the plate does not show the number of persons 
that some of the oblongs represent. There may be several 
buyers, and dozens of salesmen, deliverymen, floor man¬ 
agers, cashiers, etc. All that the plate represents is an out¬ 
line of the work to be done in a retail store, with lines 


152 





w 

H 

< 

h-J 

a. 


l • 






















































































































RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


showing what departments are responsible for the work. 
It also shows the usual directions of promotion. For ex¬ 
ample, the efficient floor manager may hope to become a 
store superintendent some day; the window trimmer, an 
advertising man; the salesman, a buyer; the buyer, a mer¬ 
chandise manager; and the collector may become a credit 
man. Not that these are the only possible means of rising, 
but they are the most natural or logical. 

Duties of each department. —Using Plate III as an out¬ 
line, let us define the work of each of the departments so 
as to show its relation to the effective management of the 
whole business. We shall speak as if the work of each de¬ 
partment were supervised by a separate individual, though 
the student must keep in mind that this definite separation 
does not mean that two or more of the departments cannot in 
some cases be directed effectively by one man. 

The general manager. —The general manager is the 
owner or the representative of the owner of the business. 
He is the one who is directly responsible for the success¬ 
ful management of the business and the accumulation of 
surplus and profits. The owners, whoever they may be, 
have invested their money in the business in order to get 
returns or dividends. This desire on their part is entirely 
legitimate. They offer to do a service for the public for 
which a return is asked. But that service must be efficiently 
performed or there will be no dividends; hence the great 
importance of selecting a highly capable man for general 
manager. He needs to be a man of executive ability, an 
organizer, a leader, and a teacher of men. He needs to be a 
good judge of human nature, so that he can select for his de¬ 
partment heads the right kind of people. 

In the highly successful business, the general manager is 
well known to all of his force. He is approachable. He 
is always ready to give ear to any suggestion or complaint 
that cannot be disposed of satisfactorily by his subordinates. 


EFFICIENCY AND STORE ORGANIZATION 


Upon him devolves the important duty of determining the 
store policies, and his enthusiasm is usually the mainspring 
for the whole store. He has broad oversight over all the 
store. He needs to be familiar with its every detail, but he 
gives special attention to the financial and trade conditions 
upon which the store is to base its buying and selling pol¬ 
icies. 

That general manager is considered good who selects the 
best men for his department heads, who gets loyal, en¬ 
thusiastic service from the entire force, who guides the 
buying and selling so as to give the store a good reputation 
among its patrons, and who manages the entire establishment 
so that the stockholders or owners are satisfied with the re¬ 
turn on their investment. 

Merchandise manager. —The merchandise manager is the 
store expert on goods, on demand, and on supply. He is 
the student of the markets, both for buying and selling. 
He follows the variations of prices of every article in which 
his store deals. He apportions the funds for buying among 
the departments, counsels the buyers, examines all of their 
orders for purchases, and passes upon all invoices, discounts, 
and other bills for goods. All buying correspondence must 
pass through his hands. Special sales, mark-downs, and 
extensive changes in goods displays are all planned by the 
merchandise manager. 

All of the buyers and their salespeople are responsible 
to him, and he is responsible to the general manager for all 
purchases, sales, profits, and losses. No commercial posi¬ 
tions pay higher salaries than does this one. Some mer¬ 
chandise managers receive $10,000 per year, while as high 
as $100,000 have been paid by two or three of the largest 
stores in the country. 

Buyers.—Most stores have found it advisable to depart- 
mentize; that is, to classify the selling according to the 
kinds of goods sold. The department store is an example 


155 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


of this departmentization. But not only has it been profit¬ 
able to departmentize according to broad lines, as, for 
example, drygoods, groceries, boots and shoes, men’s cloth¬ 
ing, hardware, furniture, drugs, and so on; each of these 
in turn has been subdivided into departments. Take a cloth¬ 
ing store for example—its departments may be men’s suits, 
overcoats, children’s clothing, hats, collars and neckwear, 
shirts, underwear, and possibly several others. A list of 
typical departments in a drygoods store is given in Plate 
IV. Each department is a complete little store by itself 
except for certain general services performed for all de¬ 
partments in common, such as delivering goods and keeping 
credit records. 

The buyer is the storekeeper in his department. In fact, 
his “store” is often a much larger affair than most small re¬ 
tail houses of a few years ago. His stock may amount to 
thousands of dollars. As the storekeeper or head of the 
department, his duties can readily be understood. He is re¬ 
sponsible for the results of his department to the mer¬ 
chandise manager. He keeps track of his stock, the sales, 
gross profits, and net profits of his department. He orig¬ 
inates suggestions and selling plans which he proposes to 
the merchandise manager and advertising man. Finally, he 
is a specialist in the study of popular demand for the lines 
carried in his department, and buys the goods which will 
bring the best results. In his buying he is under the direc¬ 
tion of the merchandise manager, but, except for limitations 
as to amounts of money to spend and general suggestions, 
he is generally given rather a free hand, with the injunction 
from his superiors to “make good.” 

It is his duty to call the attention of the salespeople to 
new goods, explain their talking points, and keep the sales¬ 
people keyed up and anxious to do well. He looks after the 
arrangement of the stock, carefully watches to avoid the 
accumulation of dead stock, and makes recommendations 


EFFICIENCY AND STORE ORGANIZATION 


for mark-downs in prices in order to move any goods that 
appear unpopular at the regular prices. As will be ex¬ 
plained in the chapter on advertising, he supplies the adver¬ 
tising man with the necessary idea for the space which his 
department is allowed. 

Assistant buyers. —Frequently a buyer is the head of 
more than one department; in this case he gives such time 
and service to each department as an independent store¬ 
keeper would give to the several departments of his store. 
But whether a buyer purchases, for more than one depart¬ 
ment or not, an assistant buyer is a valuable official in a 
large store. The assistant acts for the buyer whenever the 
latter is absent. The assistant can also be of great use in 
keeping track of the routine and clerical work of the de¬ 
partment. He may assist in making up stock plans and 
stock records. To him may be assigned the work of fol¬ 
lowing up special orders and hastening deliveries. He may 
also be of assistance in making the necessary department 
reports for the records office. This work serves as splendid 
training for the man who aims to become a buyer. The 
salaries of good buyers run all the way from $1,000 up to 
$10,000 per year. Assitant buyers average about $15 per week. 

The alteration department. —In Plate III, the alteration 
department is shown as being under the supervision of the 
buyers. This should be the case in all ready-to-wear depart¬ 
ments handling goods that may require alterations to suit 
customers. If there is a department handling such goods 
in the store, the buyer for that department should be made 
responsible for its efficient operation. Good buying presup¬ 
poses the buying of goods that will fit well. Poor buying 
will result in the need for more alterations than good buy¬ 
ing. If the buyer is made fully aware of this by mak¬ 
ing him and his department stand the loss due to the ex¬ 
pense of alterations, he will buy more carefully than he 
might otherwise. 


157 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Factory system in alteration department. —The altera¬ 
tion department should be operated on the same system as 
a special-order factory. It should be fitted with the best 
appliances and surroundings for the work, such as im¬ 
proved machines, good light, heat, and good air. By a sys¬ 
tem of cost accounting, it should be possible to determine 
in each alteration just what its cost to the store is, so that 
the buyer may be made fully aware of the situation, and 
so that the most effective methods of making the alterations 
may be devised. 

The salespeople. —Directly under the buyers are the 
salespeople. They are responsible for the sale of the goods. 
Their duties have been discussed in detail in the preceding 
chapters. 

City shoppers. —The merchandise manager often has a 
special class of assistants known as city shoppers. These 
individuals are employed to go about among the other stores 
in the city and learn what the stores are doing, the prices 
they are making, original methods of selling or display, and 
about arrivals of new lines of goods. Reports are made 
personally upon these points to the merchandise manager, 
who thereby keeps fully in touch with competition. 

The advertising department. —Practice differs greatly 
with respect to advertising and the duties and powers of the 
advertising man. In some stores he has great power; in 
others he counts for little in the organization. Generally 
speaking, his influence seems to be increasing. It should 
be said that in most retail stores the advertising department 
is not given a co-ordinate place with the other three big de¬ 
partments. In some cases the advertising man is an assist¬ 
ant of the merchandise manager. Logically, this seems 
the proper relation, since the merchandise manager is re¬ 
sponsible for the sale of the goods of the store and the ad¬ 
vertising man helps to build up favorable attention and in¬ 
terest in the goods. But experience in a number of houses 

158 


EFFICIENCY AND STORE ORGANIZATION 


has shown that the best arrangement is to have one man com¬ 
bine the functions of merchandise manager and of ad¬ 
vertising manager as wHd. 

Where the positions of merchandise manager and general 
manager are filled by separate individuals, both the adver¬ 
tising man and the merchandise man report directly to the 
general manager, who obtains co-operation from both for the 
general good of the business. 

Frequently the window-trimmer and the card-writer work 
under other officials than the advertising manager. This is 
illogical where the latter is a strong, able man who fully 
understands store publicity. The displays and advertising of 
a store need to be correlated closely, and if all of this is 
done under the direction of the advertising department, the 
results are most effective. Where the window-trimmers and 
card-writers are scattered under other heads, there is usu¬ 
ally weakness, or suspicion of weakness, in the advertising 
department. 

In many cases the general manager is the real advertis¬ 
ing manager, and the so-called advertising man is but a 
copy-writer. When advertising men understand retailing 
more fully, in addition to the matter that constitutes theii 
art, this situation will pass away. 

Wherever a store has encouraged the ordering of goods 
by mail, the advertising department has usually been re¬ 
sponsible for getting the mail orders, and has had to supply 
the means for managing this business. The “shopper” 
shown in Plate III fills the mail orders from the various 
departments of the store; she tries to buy from the cus¬ 
tomer’s point of view, and seeks to get as good a bargain 
as possible. In this way, when the shopper is efficient and 
in earnest about satisfying her mail-order customers, these 
customers often get the best goods the house has to offer 
at the price the customers are willing to pay. 

The mail-order department in the small town store is in an 


*59 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


uncertain position. Many who have tried selling in this 
way have found that it does not pay its own expenses. 
More fortunate ones report that it just about carries itself, 
and that as a result of this kind of selling, the store gets 
good advertising which results in increased sales over the 
counter. Some dealers maintain that the mail-order depart¬ 
ment of the average store is the best answer to the ques¬ 
tion, “What is to be done about the competition of the great 
central mail-order houses ?” Whether this is the right an¬ 
swer is still an open question. 

The store superintendent—The store superintendent is 
the general in command of the store and its operation. He 
hires and discharges the employes. Through him promo¬ 
tions are made, and the education of new employes is pro¬ 
vided for. Upon the superintendent rests the responsibility 
for proper discipline and store order. Rivalries are 
smoothed out by him, and harmony among all employes pro¬ 
moted. 

The superintendent must also provide for the establish¬ 
ment of necessary store systems. He establishes and organ¬ 
izes the delivery department, the inspecting and wrapping de¬ 
partments, and the exchange and complaint departments. 
The care and arrangement of the building are within his 
duties. He must see that it is kept clean, properly lighted, 
heated, and ventilated. Changes in the store plan are 
passed upon by him. Repairs are authorized by him, and 
supplies other than those to be sold again are purchased in 
his department. To do all this work he may have a small 
army of employes, organized in groups under various heads, 
as in large stores; or he may have the assistance of employes 
of other departments of the store for certain times during 
the day in cleaning the store, arranging fixtures, providing 
drinking water, moving goods, etc. The superintendent’s 
department looks after everything about the store from 
building annexes to setting mouse-traps. 

160 


EFFICIENCY AND STORE ORGANIZATION 


An efficient superintendent knows his building and the 
location of practically everything in it from top to bot¬ 
tom. He is the efficiency expert within the store. He at¬ 
tends to the elevators to see that they run safely, and his 
so-called “welfare department” attends to the welfare of the 
employes of the store—physically, mentally, and morally. 
Lunch rooms, rest rooms, nurses, educational lectures, edu¬ 
cational courses, picnics, outings, concerts, athletics, sav¬ 
ings funds, pensions, sick benefits, all fall under his de¬ 
partment’s management. He is a man who must be “on the 
job” early and late. He averages daily perhaps, three hours 
in his office and six hours about the store. He ought to be 
in the store at the time of opening, and he is usually among 
the last to leave. 

Floor managers.—As assistants of the superintendent, 
there are usually a number of officials known as floor and 
aisle managers. Upon them devolves the immediate re¬ 
sponsibility of keeping their respective parts of the store 
in good order, and of enforcing discipline among the sales 
force. Through them the superintendent has indirect super¬ 
vision over the work of the salespeople. 

The floor managers assist the salespeople in every pos¬ 
sible way in the making of sales. They meet the store’s 
visitors with smiles of welcome. They assist the visitors 
in finding the departments that are sought. They are, or 
should be, the store’s courtiers. They watch customers to 
to see that they get what they want and are satisfied. If the 
salesman fails to sell, a skillful floor manager can often hold 
the disgruntled customer, and complete the transaction. 

While strict in their enforcement of the rules of the house, 
the floor managers encourage and cheer the salespeople, and 
keep them in good spirits and enthusiastic in their work. 
Offering suggestions for the improvement of methods of 
showing the goods, pointing out selling arguments, or snow¬ 
ing how to treat hard customers, are some of the ways 


161 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


in which the efficient floor manager gives assistance to sales¬ 
people. 

The floor manager obtains from the card writer all nec¬ 
essary signs and cards for the store displays. He sees that 
these cards are properly placed; also, that the goods and 
their arrangement look as they should from the customer’s 
side of the counter. He is expected to suggest changes 
whenever he has any in mind. All lost and found articles, 
as well as change that is left by customers, are turned over 
to him, and he takes them to the general office. 

He must look after the lighting, heating, and general com¬ 
fort of this floor. Undue exposure in sunlight, or too little 
light are points he must note and correct at once by drawing 
curtains or turning on more light. In short the floor man¬ 
agers are the line officers of the store army. They secure the 
right co-operation among the departments. Through the ac¬ 
tivity of the floor managers the policies of the store towards 
customers become a reality. Salespeople are led by the 
floor managers to co-operate with the advertising depart¬ 
ment. Deviations from the regular systems of the records 
department, such as unusual demands of customers, changes 
in sales slips, etc., must be under the direction and by per¬ 
mission of the floor managers. 

Stenographers.—There is another class of employes un¬ 
der the direction of the superintendent. Stenographers are 
not always assigned to some department for full time; hence 
the disposal of their time is placed under the direction of the 
superintendent. When any one in the store has occasion to 
have stenographic assistance, the assignment of some one to 
do the work is made through the superintendent. 

The records department.—We cannot here go into de¬ 
tail concerning the work of the records department. That 
would require a book by itself. This text would not be com¬ 
plete, however, without a brief statement of the purpose of 
the work done in this department. Knowing this purpose* 


162 


EFFICIENCY AND STORE ORGANIZATION 


ihe salesman, or other store employe, will be able to render 
much better co-operation, and to get more information of 
value out of the reports from the department, than would 
be the case without this knowledge. The books and records 
of the store are the means whereby its managers determine 
the success of work that has been done. Without them, 
the best and most efficient store managers in the world 
would waste a large part of their efforts. Careful ac¬ 
counting in the store has been the first important step 
towards making storekeeping more than a mere occupa¬ 
tion. The old time store bookkeeping systems were thought 
entirely satisfactory if they but showed a cash balance cor¬ 
responding to that of the cash drawer, a statement of the 
goods on hand made out once a year upon varying bases, 
and a list of the notes receivable and accounts receivable. 
Balanced with these were the liabilities, such as notes and 
unpaid bills, and the profits, whateyer they turned out to be. 
No one knew just what part of the store the profits came 
from. In fact, it is now known that in many of the old time 
businesses some departments were carried on at an actual 
loss—a fact never realized until better accounting systems 
were established. No one knew what the costs or expenses 
of selling the goods were. A liberal profit was added to cost 
prices, with the hope that this would cover all expense and 
yield something of a profit besides. Credits were handled 
unsystematically, and dishonesty among employes was com¬ 
mon—in many cases never discovered because of the loose 
system of handling funds and accounts. All this is passing 
away rapidly. The business that neglects to keep full rec¬ 
ords of what is going on is bidding for certain failure under 
modern conditions. 

The up-to-date retail store accounting system provides for 
accurate figures on total sales, subdivided into cash and 
credit for every business day, not only for the entire store 
but for every individual department. From the average 

163 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


amounts of mark-up, the percentage of profits for each de¬ 
partment may be known for every day. As a check against 
this item, there is kept for every department a careful rec¬ 
ord of the stock on hand—a sort of perpetual inventory 
which will show the amounts of goods sold for any given 
day, and the amounts on hand. The expense of every de¬ 
partment for every day is known so that the net profits also 
may be computed. If there should be a loss instead of a 
profit, the reasons therefor should be determined at once, 
and the proper remedies applied. 

Careful computations and totals follow for the weekly 
and monthly statements, and once a year (twice a year in 
some stores) a thorough inventory is taken to check up the 
methods of computing amounts of goods on hand, their con¬ 
dition, and their value. This statement is made most com¬ 
plete for every department. Plate IV is an example of such 
a summary. Notice the headings and the detailed computa¬ 
tion for every department. Imagine this statement on the 
desk in front of the general manager; explanations for the 
losses must be made to him in any department in which 
they occur. Such statements are living documents point¬ 
ing with certainty at difficulties in business management; 
such, for example, as adverse market conditions, poor buy¬ 
ing, or poor selling. If the market conditions are at fault, 
what remedies can be taken to suit the particular business 
under consideration? If the loss is due to inefficiency in 
the store, what can be done about it? There need be no 
guess work—no charge of favoritism. Either a department 
has made good or it has not. This does not mean that the 
best of buyers with the best of store systems do not run 
behind sometimes; but with a complete statement of actual 
results, the explanation for the reverse may readily be found. 
If the difficulties were of such nature that none could fore¬ 
see them, then there can be no blame attached. But every 
mistake tends to be a valuable lesson to the buyers and 

164 


AN IDEAL STATEMENT OF THE BUSINESS —SUMMARY OF DEPARTMENTS FOR SIX MONTHS 




Stock 
Jan. 31, 
1910 

Purchases 

Sales 

Stock 
July 31. 
1910 

Gross 

Profits 

Per Cent. 

Salaries 

Other 

Expenses 

Total 

Expenses 

Per Cent 

A 

Colored Woolen Dress Goods and Lawns. 

$ 5 . 371 .88 

$7.976.18 

$10,136.91 

$5,422.05 

$2,210.90 

21.8 

$1,040.00 

$1,386.07 

$2,426.07 

23-9 

B 

Linings, Ginghams, Cotton Dress Goods, etc. . . 

4 . 318.79 

6,247.35 

9,184.99 

3,903.53 

2,522.38 

27-3 

780.00 

1,097.16 

1,877.16 

20.4 

C 

Silks, Satins, and Velvets. 

4.453 ■ 16 

6,323.87 

8,722.56 

3.867.51 

1,813.04 

20.75 

750.00 

1,119.19 

1,869.19 

21.4 

D 

Black Goods and Umbrellas. 

2,185.89 

3 . 393-37 

4 . 139-29 

2,066.78 

626.81 

15 

520.00 

579.27 

1,099.27 

26.5 

E 

Table Linen, Napkins, Towels, etc. 

3,902.98 

2 , 553-91 

4,138.01 

3,406.16 

1,087.28 

26.2 

260.00 

670.40 

930.40 

22.5 

F 

Mattings. Rugs, Curtains, and Bars. 

9.318.27 

9.906.24 

13,301.71 

10,270.40 

4.347.60 

32.7 

728.00 

1,996.41 

2,724.41 

20.5 

G 

White Goods. 

1,015 -91 

4 , 990.74 

5 , 944-93 

1,804.86 

1.743.14 

293 

260.00 

623.61 

883.61 

14.8 

H 

Domestics and Tickings. 

$5,381.07 

$2,681.84 

$5,527.02 

$ 3,707 • 10 

$1,171.21 

21.2 

$350.00 

$837.31 

$1,187.31 

21.5 

J 

Notions. 

2,042.31 

3 . 3 H -95 

4.870.64 

1 , 495-37 

1,020 .75 

21 . I 

288.00 

555-90 

843.90 

17-3 

K 

Laces and Embroideries. 

6 , 375-59 

6,427.79 

11,481.33 

3 , 579 - 28 

2,257.23 

197 

336.00 

1,329.60 

1,665.60 

145 

L 

Handkerchiefs and Fans. 

601.15 

868.95 

1,427.23. 

507.67 

464.80 

32 5 

104.00 

152.55 

256.55 

is 

M 

Leather Goods and Neckwear. 

798.02 

3,460.92 

4 , 552.79 

842.69 

1.136.54 

25 

130.00 

442 -19 

572.19 

12.5 

N 

Patterns. 

1.316.91 

369.84 

742.02 

1 . 377-21 

432.48 

59 

78.00 

175.00 

25300 

34 

0 

Ribbons. 

1,884.08 

5,069.90 

6,427-14 

2,542.56 

2,015.72 

31.3 

156.00 

722.06 

878.06 

13-6 

p 

Gloves. 

$695.00 

$1.410.10 

$1,946.17 

$442.76 

$283.83 

14.6 

$156.00 

$218.61 

$374.61 

T 9 

0 

Hosiery. 

U 370.97 

3 . 109 - 19 

4 .O 07-71 

2,024.21 

1,641.76 

40 

239.00 

464 53 

698.53 

16.9 

R 

Underwear. 

8, 773-95 

4.160.10 

6,866.20 

8.002.57 

1 . 934-72 

28.2 

398.00 

1.343 08 

1,741.08 

25.8 

s 

Suits, Waists, Skirts, and Wraps. 

14,561.85 

26,148.63 

32,436.56 

15,736.90 

7,462.98 

23 

1,430.00 

4.231.25 

5.661.25 

17.4 

T 

Corsets. 

921.20 

2,085.36 

2,756.17 

75589 

505 50 

18.3 

200.00 

312 .17 

512.17 

18 .5 

W 

Perfumery, Soaps, and Fancy Goods. 

389-32 

785.02 

1,209 • 41 

501.90 

536.97 

44.4 

104.00 

I2I.91 

225.91 

18.7 

X 

Men's Furnishing Goods. 

3 , 547-12 

2,993.83 

3 . 434-62 

3,245.08 

138.75 

4 

325-00 

679.17 

1,004.17 

29.2 



$70,225.42 

$104,275.08 

$ 143 , 352.41 

$75,502.48 

$ 35 , 354-39 


$8,623 ■ 00 

$19,057.44 

*27,684.44 



Net Profit 


$645 


156 

1.623 

859 


$176.85 
59 1 63 
208.25 
S 64 - 3 S 
179-48 
1,137.66 


$ 943-23 
193.64 
1,801 -73 


Net Loss 


31106 


$215.17 


56.15 

472.46 


$16.10 


$90.78 


6.67 

865.42 


$9,392.70 $1,722.75 


Per Cent. 
Net Profit 


3 

5 

14 

12 

25 

17 


25 


Per Cent. 
Net Loss 


.6 

11 .5 


4-4 


. 2 
25.2 


Share of 
Discount 


Total 
Net Profit 


Total 
Net Loss 


$352.06 
275-74 
279.09 
149 75 
1x2.68 

437-24 

220.25 


$136.89 

920.96 

222.94 


269.56 
2,060.43 
1,079.78 


$322.71 


$118.33 

136.14 

283.68 

38.30 

152.71 


$102.23 
312.99 
875 31 

246.55 

717.06 


16.27 


195-75 


223.73 


$62.23 

137-22 

183.62 
1,165 . II 

92.02 

34-65 
132.II 


$4,602.93 $ 


1.361 .39 


28.55 


P 


$1,080 

45 

377 

26 

2,966 

84 

85 

35 

345 

71 


Q 


733 31 


R 

S 

T 

W 

X 


13.35745 


$1,084.57 


Percent, gross profit on sales. 24.6 

Percent, expenses on sales. 19 3 

Per cent, net profit on sales. 5-3 

Net profit (including cash discounts). $12,272 88 

Sales. $143,352.41 


PLATE IV. 


OS'gr'^'-n; 0”3pdOOB> 






































































































































































. 

■ 

. 

























EFFICIENCY AND STORE ORGANIZATION 


managers when a complete system of records is in opera¬ 
tion. 

Statistics and records. —Besides financial accounts, the 
department of records will build up a live mailing list of 
possible customers, systems for checking the arrival of 
goods, results of every advertisement, files of prices, dealers, 
addresses, etc. The town in which the store is located will 
be analyzed on a card system in the office of the records 
department. There will be lists of the names of all the 
good credit risks in the city. Perhaps a spot map on large 
scale may hang on an inner wall showing location in the 
city of the regular trade. This will serve as a guide to the 
advertising man and to the buyers. In conclusion, the 
records department will keep every sort of record that will 
be of use to the business. 

The records manager. —The head of the records depart¬ 
ment needs to be a broadly trained accountant and systems 
expert, and needs to adapt his accounting and his systems 
to his individual business. Where credit is granted, the 
proper supervision over the records department is some¬ 
times a difficult matter to decide. A good arrangement in 
the medium sized store is to have the credit man at the head 
of the records department. His work has long been recog¬ 
nized as important; and the placing of this official over the 
whole records department assures to the business that at 
least the important accounting of credits will be cared for 
properly. Obviously the collection department should be 
under the credit man, as has already been pointed out. 

Store conferences. —There is one other sort of organi¬ 
zation in a store that merits more attention than it has 
received, and that is the conference. First of all, there 
should be a weekly council of heads of departments, pre¬ 
sided over by the general manager, at which the selling plans 
for the coming week should be discussed by buyers, adver¬ 
tising man, credit man, and superintendent. Here definite 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 

understandings, without likelihood of future misunderstand¬ 
ings, could be reached, and the validity of every new idea or 
suggestion could be tried out under the fire of criticism from 
the entire group. Frankness here would not mean loss of 
dignity or power in any department, for the final decisions 
should rest with the general manager in all important mat¬ 
ters. Time may be saved by this method as compared with 
individual conferences, and better co-operation assured. 

General inspiration meetings. —Another valuable form 
of conference is of slightly different character. It is a meet¬ 
ing, say once a month, of all the salespeople, presided over 
by the store superintendent, the merchandise manager, or 
the general manager. Such meetings can be made produc¬ 
tive of great value in arousing enthusiasm, emphasizing the 
right ideas concerning store practice, and in increasing team¬ 
work in all departments. Short, brisk speeches, commonly 
called “ginger talks/’ are effective in conferences of this 
sort. Good feeling and enthusiasm should be the key¬ 
notes. Every salesman should feel after such a meeting 
that he is anxious to get back into the work and outdo all 
his former records. Speeches on business topics by outsid¬ 
ers who can give stirring addresses are of value. Traveling 
salesmen of much experience can often be prevailed upon 
to address such a meeting or at least a group of the sales¬ 
men who are to sell the lines in which he is interested. 
There is some danger of overdoing speech-making unless 
care is exercised; but there is nothing so effective in get¬ 
ting the salespeople to co-operate with each other as a lively, 
serious, enthusiastic meeting of all the store workers. 


CHAPTER XIV 


STANDARDS OF EFFICIENCY IN A RETAIL STORE 

Standards in business. —After a store has been depart- 
mentized, and the function of each department and individ¬ 
ual has been defined and described, there should follow 
an attempt to eliminate all wastes and leaks. This subject 
has been considered in a previous chapter. The next step is 
the setting-up of standards—standards of store construction, 
equipment, and of performance in every department. Suc¬ 
cessful experience has established a number of these stand¬ 
ards; others remain to be discovered, for the reason that 
the matters involved have never been carefully studied. 
A knowledge of standards by managers and employes fur¬ 
nishes a guide and measure for the construction and work 
of the store. The standards, to a large extent, may be ap¬ 
plied in any kind of store. For example, there is a standard 
amount of light and ventilation required by a store, de¬ 
pending only upon the character of goods and the number 
of persons that the store is to accommodate. Anything 
less than standard light and ventilation will prove injurious 
to business and to health anywhere. 

Standards are not applicable to every phase of business, 
for the personality of individuals often figures too promi¬ 
nently ; but it seems likely that there is opportunity for set¬ 
ting up many more standards than those now in existence 
in the average business. 

Here is a field of opportunity offering an almost un- 
167 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


limited number of problems demanding solution. Make the 
store your laboratory. Study every item of its construc¬ 
tion, its goods, and its service with reference to the degree 
of its success in trade-getting. Carefully determine, by re¬ 
peated trials and by finding out the experiences of others, 
whether every practice, piece of equipment, or operation is 
as successful as it might be. Keep your mind open to every 
suggestion of improvement and to criticism, and be slow 
to draw conclusions. Remember that in scientific labora¬ 
tories where the natural sciences are studied, in an investiga¬ 
tion sometimes hundreds of trials or experiments are needed 
to prove, or to disprove, a single point. Such painstaking 
investigation, with the conclusions to be drawn therefrom, 
will be highly valuable when applied to business. 

In view of the extreme youth of the scientific study of 
retailing, what is offered here can hardly be called more 
than tentative standards, and in some cases merely sugges¬ 
tions. Verify what is stated here, and decide whether it is 
true or untrue for the business with which you are familiar. 

Standards of construction. —Consider the building first. 
Store fronts are rapidly becoming standardized as to con¬ 
struction, window space, doorways, and proportions of the 
various parts. Fire insurance companies are forcing mer¬ 
chants to adopt standard fire-proof construction. Experi¬ 
ence seems to show that the height of the room should not 
be less than fourteen feet in the clear on the ground floor, 
and not less than twelve feet on other floors; a ten-foot base¬ 
ment may possibly be permissible, however. High ceilings 
provide increased daylight, purer air, and give the impres¬ 
sion of spaciousness. 

Floor. —The first choice for flooring is maple; the second, 
oak. Parquetry floors are most suitable for some depart¬ 
ments. It has been found that no color is so suitable for 
floor coverings, carpets, and rugs as a medium shade of 
green. Steel ceilings are favored everywhere, and the most 


STANDARDS OF EFFICIENCY 


popular color for ceilings seems to be either white or a 
light tint of green. 

Stairways. —Stairways should have treads of certain 
height and width. Upon these points there is disagreement, 
although there should be none. Some store architects advo¬ 
cate treads six inches high and twelve inches wide. Others 
say that a tread seven inches high is better. This may seem 
a small point, but it is really one that is very important. 
The store manager wants a stairway that the majority of 
people can walk up and down with the least expenditure of 
energy and with the least feeling of discomfort. It should 
be possible to determine this matter by test. The best loca¬ 
tion for stairways, as well as for departments, may, per¬ 
haps not be standardized so easily. Some people maintain 
that the stairway leading to the second floor should be 
placed at the far end of the store at some distance from 
the main entrance. If an elevator is used, it should ordinar¬ 
ily be located by the side of the stairway. Many cus¬ 
tomers who would otherwise use the elevator will walk up 
or down if the elevator happens to be busy and if the 
stairway is directly before them. 

Fixtures. —Counters and shelving should have standard 
heights and widths corresponding to the uses to which they 
are to be put. What is most convenient should be consid¬ 
ered standard. For example, dress goods need a counter 
thirty-two inches high and twenty-six inches wide. A 
counter for domestics needs to be thirty-six inches wide, 
while a glove counter needs to be only half as wide. Stand¬ 
ard fixtures should be simple in outline, rich in appearance, 
well kept, and free from all beading or other dust-catching 
and dirt-gathering decorations. 

Heat. —A store should maintain a temperature of about 
65° F. uniformly, with a relative humidity of from 50 to 75 
per cent. By humidity is meant that amount of moisture in 
the air. All air contains some moisture. But when there is 


i6q 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT: 


too little or too much, the human body suffers and the per¬ 
son breathing it becomes tired, cross, careless, and sleepy. 
This point is very important, and, whenever a heating sys¬ 
tem is being installed in a store, provision should be made 
for getting air not only of the right temperature but also 
with sufficient moisture. 

Light. —The lighting should be adequate, artistic, and 
economical. White is the standard color. Artificial lamps 
should be placed so that there may be no shadows. The 
light should be steady and even. For daytime, there is no 
light that is so suitable as daylight. A store should be con¬ 
structed so as to have plenty of it. Any store that is so 
dark on an average day that customers must strain their 
eyes to see the common qualities of the goods for sale, is 
too dark. There is a scientific test for the lighting of a store, 
but it is somewhat difficult to apply, and, for ordinary pur¬ 
poses, the simple test of eye-feeling is sufficient. Standard 
light is such as to permit a person with average eyes to 
study the goods or to read newspaper print without eye 
strain. 

Air. —Every individual in a room needs about fifty cu¬ 
bic feet of fresh air per minute. That amount multiplied 
by the average number of persons in the store during the 
day is the amount that must be supplied and passed out 
of the building. Many merchants wonder why their sales¬ 
men are so listless, unambitious, and lacking in initiative. 
It is almost always the case that a store where this is true 
is one that is not ventilated, lighted, or heated properly. 
Usually the air is not fresh and is too dry, especially in 
the winter time. 

Cleaning. —Standards may be established for removing 
dirt and dust. The vacuum cleaner is a coming necessity; 
but in the meantime the sweepers need to be taught the 
best way in which their work may be done; and the dusting 
needs similar study. There is no question that the feather 


170 


STANDARDS OF EFFICIENCY 


duster will pass away as a result of careful study of clears 
ing methods. 

Score card for stores. —The state of North Dakota has a 
sanitary inspection law requiring regular inspection of all 
kinds of stores dealing in foodstuffs. The inspectors employ 
a system of scoring that may be of interest, since the use 
of the score card clearly implies the application of stand¬ 
ards not only to details but to the whole store. 

North Dakota's Score Card for Grocery Stores 

Points perfect 


Ventilation and light . io 

Floors, walls, fixtures, screens, etc. io 

Refrigerator . io 

Butter and cheese. io 

Bulk goods, vegetables, etc. io 

Display of goods in store. io 

Sidewalk display . io 

Cellar and cellar stock . io 

Back room and yard. io 

Personal cleanliness . io 

Total, perfect store . ioo 


The inspectors judge each item separately, and the reports 
of the use of the system state that scarcely any store 
scores higher than a total of 90. Since the standards in 
this case are mainly sanitary, the grocer whose store scores 
from 90 to 100 points gets the best kind of results from 
advertising his rating. The public is beginning to be inter¬ 
ested in these matters, and no store can afford to lag behind 
the times. The list of items on which North Dakota stores 
are judged is suggestive of what every storekeeper should 
attend to, whether the law forces him to do so or not. It 


171 













RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


will probably not be long before most states will regularly 
inspect all retail stores, and will demand the conditions that 
progressive merchants now find profitable in their business. 

Standards in buying and receiving goods. —Buying 
offers some opportunities for standardization, especially as 
to stock to be kept on hand, prices that can be paid if goods 
are to sell at a certain figure, the discount expected, and 
so on. There should be standard ways devised for re¬ 
ceiving goods, unpacking, disposal of waste, checking of 
goods, and storing. Stock-keeping standards will result 
not only in accurate information as to amounts on hand, 
but also as to the best ways of keeping goods so that they 
will not depreciate. There is no limit to the number of 
scientific studies that can be made in stock keeping, for 
there are best ways of doing everything, even to replacing a 
pin in a bolt of ribbon. 

Methods of inspecting, wrapping, and change-making are 
subject to considerable improvement in respect to economy 
of time, of energy, and of expense. Packages should be 
wrapped in a certain way; the wrapper should use paper 
of just sufficient size and twine of the right length. Paper 
of the right quality should be selected; in this, popular 
fancy governs to some degree. For example, it has been 
proved that most people prefer a heavy wrapping paper 
and a heavy string, since these give a feeling of security. 
A lighter paper and twine might be stronger, but they really 
give less satisfaction. Some who have thoroughly studied 
the wrapping paper problem maintain that it is more eco¬ 
nomical to use paper already cut to' convenient dimensions 
than to use paper taken directly from a roll. A rule can 
be made in regard to the use of paper of given sizes or of 
paper bags of various sizes, so that the wrapper will use 
the most economical size for each article to be wrapped. 
The wrapping itself can be reduced to a standard system. 
Everyone has seen great differences in ability and speed 


172 


STANDARDS OF EFFICIENCY 


in wrapping. The methods of the best wrapper in the store 
should be taught to everyone who must do the work. Wait¬ 
ing for change is somewhat disagreeable to many people. 
Cashiers and salesmen should be trained in methods of mak¬ 
ing change accurately in the shortest possible time. 

Standards for salesmen. —In the selling of goods there 
is great need of individuality and originality, but there are 
a number of things, even in selling, that may be done in 
certain ways that are always better than other ways. 
For example, orderly arrangement of goods on shelves or 
in cases so that the salesmen can turn to just what 
he wants without a moment’s hesitation is a first 
requisite. The methods of displaying goods can per¬ 
haps not be standardized, but there will surely be found 
standard ways that are applicable under given conditions, 
as, for example, methods that bring the articles to the at¬ 
tention of the customer in the most favorable light, and 
involve some response or action on the part of the cus¬ 
tomer. Several stores have already standardized the meth¬ 
ods of closing the sale, what to say to suggest the buying 
of further goods, and how to get information as to whether 
the sale shall be for cash or on account. They have also 
standardized methods for making out sales checks or slips. 
In large stores new employes are carefully drilled in this 
matter to prevent mistakes. Every possible kind of sale is 
studied as a separate problem, and the salesman is not per¬ 
mitted to take his place behind the counter until he can 
make out correctly the proper slip for every possible kind 
of sale. The number of different classes of sales varies 
with the selling policy of the store; in some stores there are 
as high as twenty, while in others there may not be more 
than eight or ten. A strictly cash store might have five or 
six. 

Kinds of sales. —The following is a suggestive list of 
the different kinds of sales for which slips must be made 


173 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


out if a store sells both for credit and for cash, and if it 
stands ready to make exchanges if goods are not satisfac¬ 
tory : 

1. Cash sale—customer takes goods with him. 

2. Cash sale—store to deliver goods. 

3. Charge sale—customer takes goods with him. 

4. Charge sale—store to deliver goods. 

5. C. O. D. sale. 

6 . Exchange at counter. Customer takes goods with him. 

7. Exchange for goods of higher value. Customer has 

balance charged—store to deliver. 

8. Part cash, balance C. O. D. sale. 

9. Part charge, balance C. O. D. sale. 

10. Part charge, part cash sale. 

11. Part charge, part cash, part C. O. D. sale. 

12. Cash sale to customer with transfer purchase ticket 

13. Cash sale to customer with transfer purchase ticket. 

Salesman receives cash from customer for several 

department purchases. 

14. Cash or charge sale, goods to be sent to two or more 

different addresses. 

15. Charge sale to daughter in name of father. 

16. Part cash, customer leaves goods; will call next day 

with the balance and is to take goods then. 

A store whose system demands the careful use of sales 
slips can do no better than to make out a set of typical 
problems involving different kinds of sales, and drill all new 
members of the force and old salesmen as well who make 
mistakes frequently. Errors in making out sales slips can 
be avoided by such instruction. Most metropolitan stores 
teach the methods of making out sales slips by regular class¬ 
room methods, followed by thorough examination before 
permitting new salesmen to make sales. 


174 


STANDARDS OF EFFICIENCY 


Average time per sale. —Some merchants have sought to 
increase the efficiency of their salesmen by setting average 
times for making sales. For example, a men’s clothing store 
reports that its standards of selling time are as follows: 


To sell a suit of clothes. 30 minutes 

To sell a shirt . 5 minutes 

To sell a collar. 30 seconds 


It is possible that these averages may be suggestive of 
what can be done in other lines. But there is, of course, 
considerable danger in this sort of standard, due to possible 
rushing of sales where the customer is not in the mood to 
be rushed. This mention of standard time is intended only 
as a suggestion. What does need attention, however, is 
the matter of goods arrangement. There should be no un¬ 
necessary motions or loss of time in getting out the goods 
that the customer wants if the store has them. 

Standard conditions for employes. —The manager of a 
store can increase the efficiency of his salespeople in ways 
that will bring their hearty co-operation, since the benefits 
are theirs as much as the store’s. We have already shown 
the relation of good health to salesmanship. A manager 
of a store can do much to improve the health and good 
spirits of his employes. As already suggested, this means, 
first of all, supplying them with plenty of fresh air of the 
right temperature and humidity, good light, and suitable 
equipment to work with. These things pay. The providing 
of good ventilation has often resulted in greatly reducing ab¬ 
sences caused by indisposition. Improper ventilation of a 
room, when it does not actually cause sickness, produces 
lassitude, lack of ambition, and impatience; and sales that 
require quick, keen wit will be lost. 

The manager has a right to demand that the salesmen 
come to the store with a full supply of energy for the day. 
Keeping late hours is a sure way of reducing this energy. 


175 





RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


The average person must have eight hours of sleep every 
night to be at his best, year in and year out. Hence the 
employer does have something to say, indirectly at least, 
regarding how his employes spend their leisure. 

Store service to employes to improve selling. —Besides 
providing these general conditions of good health, a mer¬ 
chant can do even more to increase the efficiency of his 
store. Successful establishments find that it pays to estab¬ 
lish rest rooms, to send employes home if they are not in 
the best of physical health, and to establish a lunch room 
if the number who will take advantage of it is large enough, 
where good, nourishing mid-day lunches are sold at cost 
of preparation. 

It pays for a store to urge its employes to take outdoor 
exercise every day. Some stores encourage the organiza¬ 
tions among both men and women for various athletic 
sports, cross-country walks, etc. Outdoor exercises, if 
moderate, store up energy for the trying work of the 
store. 

Every store employing many salespeople should have a 
nurse in attendance who can counsel and give treatment for 
simple ailments, such as colds, headache, toothache, and who 
can examine eyes, ears, nose, and throat in case of any 
suspected trouble. A trained nurse will be able to detect 
symptoms of diseases, such as anemia, nervous disorders, 
and consumption; and as a consequence, will be able to 
give the advice in time which can save the salesman 
great expense, possibly life, and likewise save to the store 
a valuable assistant whom it has taken a long time to 
train. 

In addition to these duties, a nurse or physician can give 
health talks and advice to employes, either individually or 
in groups, on matters of everyday living, such as foods, 
dress, sleep, recreation, etc. The salary of the average sales¬ 
woman is not high. If she is supporting herself, it is highly 

176 


STANDARDS OF EFFICIENCY 


essential that her expenditures for the necessities of life 
should be made as wisely as possible. But right here is 
where hundreds of young women show the least common- 
sense. Through ignorance or lack of training in these 
simple matters, the gravest mistakes are frequently made. 
For example, if unchecked, many otherwise sensible girls 
will spend five dollars for a pair of shoes and only fifty 
cents for a suit of underwear with which to meet the win¬ 
ter weather. Many have expended dollars for ornaments, 
and have tried to recoup by living on cheap lunches. This 
is a serious problem, and one that demands the attention 
of all business people. In the first place, no one should 
be required to work for less wages than will purchase the 
bare necessities of life. In the next place, every young man 
and woman should be taught how to make the best use of 
his or her income. If the health of the body cannot be 
kept up, there will never be any hope for the inefficient 
to become efficient. The body must be suitably fed and 
clothed before the mind can learn either from experience 
or from, study. A person improperly clothed or fed can¬ 
not see, hear, or understand well. If such a person has any 
energy at all, it is of a nervous type that will wreck the 
body sooner or later. 

Some stores have added clothing driers to their equip¬ 
ment. The clothing drier is a small room through which 
a dry, hot current of air is directed. Persons coming to 
the store in damp or wet clothes are taken to this room 
where the outer garments may be removed and hung up, 
while the other clothes are dried quickly by simply standing 
in the dry air current. 

Another valuable idea for improving the efficiency of the 
sales force is the periodical examination of the salespeople’s 
feet by a professional chiropodist who gives advice on the 
purchase of shoes and gives needed treatment to the feet. 
To salespeople who must be on their feet most of the time. 


177 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT. 


this is a very valuable service. Comfort and cheerfulness 
are increased, and selling ability is strengthened. It is 
profitable for any store manager to look after the physical 
welfare of his employes. He wants them to be in the best 
of health. They are happier and better citizens as well as 
better salesmen in consequence. 

Education for efficiency. —The demands of modern 
business are without end. Often we hear that it takes a 
lifetime to learn what ought to be known about even one 
department. Experience is slow, uncertain, and expensive. 
It needs to be supplemented by direct education, which is 
nothing more or less than an attempt to short-circuit the 
learning process which naturally goes on with experience. 
Education has no other purpose than to fit for life. A 
complete course of study fits for complete living. Complete 
living means ability to earn a decent living, to support and 
care for a family, to be a good citizen, and to enjoy life and 
to contribute to the enjoyment of others. The efficiency 
of any school system can be judged by anyone who will 
note how far its course of study fits for complete living. 
A discussion of the essentials of such a course would be 
out of place here, but we must note that commercial life de¬ 
mands commercial education. Progress has been so ex¬ 
tremely rapid in business that but few public schools have 
kept up with it in supplying the kind of education needed by 
those going into business. Business men sometimes criticize 
the schools, but frequently their criticisms are not construc¬ 
tive; for the business man, himself, cannot see how the 
schools can adapt themselves to commercial needs. Often 
he falls back upon recommendations to emphasize what he 
calls the essentials—reading, writing, arithmetic, and spell¬ 
ing. The time when such a course of study can be con¬ 
sidered sufficient is forever past. Experience has shown 
that the great masses who study these subjects and no 
others, no matter how thoroughly, cannot master even 


STANDARDS OF EFFICIENCY 


these. To make spelling and writing worth while in the 
schools from a commercial standpoint, it is necessary to 
put in some form of business practice that will bring spell¬ 
ing and writing into use. Few can learn to spell so that 
they can apply their knowledge in after life without mis¬ 
take by merely studying the arrangement of letters in a list 
of words. The new education which is in the process of 
finding itself, and which will satisfy, after its machinery is 
fully understood and in working order, will include shop 
work for the mechanical student, field work for the agri¬ 
cultural student, domestic science for the homemaker, and 
business practice for the business man or woman. Read¬ 
ing, writing, arithmetic, and spelling will be studied, but in 
connection with their practical applications. This is the 
only way that the so-called fundamentals can be learned 
practically. Business people must urge these new changes 
in the course of study. A large percentage of the graduates 
of the public schools go into business, and business should 
not be neglected in school courses of study. 

Practical training in selling routine. —In the meantime, 
for the benefit of those already in business, some sort of 
supplementary education is beneficial if not absolutely nec¬ 
essary. In the first place, every salesman needs to be care¬ 
fully taught the routine work of his department; and of 
this routine the making out of sales slips is an important 
item. The manager of experience should know in advance 
what errors a new man is likely to make. Instruction should 
be given covering these points. The following list of sales¬ 
men’s excuses for mistakes is suggestive of what can be 
done in the way of instruction that has for its purpose the 
doing away with errors: 

“My pencil slipped.” 

“My hand slipped.” 

“I didn’t read it right.” 

“I looked at the wrong number.” 


179 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


“I got the figures turned around/’ 

“I spelled it wrong.” 

“I gave the wrong price.” 

“I cut off too much (or too little).” 

Forewarned is forearmed. The salesman can be taught 
what to do, so that any of these or other mistakes will be 
inexcusable. He can be shown how to do things in stand¬ 
ard ways so that errors become unlikely. Much can be done 
by fitting employes into the places that they can fill the best. 
An unsuccessful salesman in one department may be shifted 
to another department often with resulting success. 

Practical education in theory. —Besides being instructed 
in routine methods such as those that have been described, 
store employes, especially salesmen, need to be instructed 
so that they may know something of the great system of 
business, something of the fundamental principles of eco¬ 
nomics and of psychology—the sciences which underlie 
modern business. Commercial geography, especially as 
related to the goods handled, and the principles of selling 
and their practice need to be learned by every salesman. 

Judging salesmen. —In judging a salesman, there are 
several things that the manager must bear in mind; it is 
not only the ability as shown during the past week or 
month and measured by the number of sales made during 
that period that should be considered. A number of condi¬ 
tions might have affected the record very materially. Some 
of these conditions may always remain unknown to the 
manager. Because a salesman’s past record may not accu¬ 
rately measure his efficiency, therefore the manager needs 
to consider the salesman not only in the light of his past 
achievements but also in the light of his promise for the 
future. The salesman needs to be considered both for the 
present and for the future in relation to his employer, to 
the store, to the other employes, and to the customer. 
Many factors must be kept in mind by the employer; and 


STANDARDS OF EFFICIENCY 


here is the difficulty. Human minds, even of employers, 
naturally think of but one thing at a time, and in judging 
of such a complex matter as a salesman’s ability and value 
to the store, it is difficult not to overlook a number of very 
important details at the time of making the decision. Many 


SCORE CARD FOR RETAIL SALESMEN 


I. Physical. (Total 20 points) 

a. Health. 

b. Appearance. 

1. Bearing. 

2. Clothing. 

3. Cleanliness. 

c. Voice. 

d. Speech. 


Perfect 

score 


Actual Actual 
score score 1 yr. 
later 


10 


2 

2 

2 

2 

2 


II. Intellectual. (Total 27 points) 

a. Knowledge of English.. 

b. General education. 

c. Technical knowledge.. 

1. Knowledge of the house (organization, 

policies, history, competitors). 

2. Knowledge of the goods. 

3. Knowledge of people. 


4 

4 


4 

7 

8 


III. Personality. (Total 23 points) 

a. Inclination to business . 

b. Ambition. 

c. Self-confidence. 

d. Determination. 

e. Honesty. 

f. Agreeableness. 

g. Courtesy and manners. 

h. Purity. 

i. Willingness to learn. 

j. Willingness to co-operate. 

k. Promptness... 

l . Frankness... 

m. Imagination. 

n. Enthusiasm and love of selling. 


1 

2 
2 

1 

2 
1 
5 
1 
1 
1 
1 

1 

2 
2 


IV. Salesmanship. (Total 30 points) 

a. Care of stock and department. 

b. Getting attention. 

c. Describing and showing goods 

d. Meeting objections. 

e. Persistence. 

f. Convincing the customer-- 

g. Closing the sale. 

h. Making customer permanent.. 

Total. 


2 

3 
3 

3 
5 

4 

5 
S 


100 


PLATE V. 




















































































RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


employers, therefore, keep records of their employes, to 
which are added observations from time to time, but this 
record is more often simply of shortcomings than of good 
points. A better judgment can be made by resorting to the 
use of a complete list of essential qualities and character¬ 
istics and by scoring these on some fair basis. The use 
of a score card is not new. It is already used in dozens of 
different ways, including the judging of fitness of teachers, 
of mechanics, and, in some instances, of salesmen. A copy 
of a score card for salesmen is given in Plate V. It will 
be seen that it summarizes the qualities that we have consid¬ 
ered in detail. It places before the eye a map or chart 
of what an. ideal salesman should be and what he should 
possess. Each quality has been given more or less arbi¬ 
trary value. Some will think that the value assigned to 
certain qualities is too low; others may think certain ones 
too high. It is not intended that the illustrated score card 
shall serve for anything but a suggestion. 

To score a salesman, one should consider his qualities as 
compared with the ideal; the ideal is “as good as it can be in 
anyone.” In proportion to your best judgment, give for 
each quality such proportion of the “perfect” score for that 
quality as you think the salesmen deserves. Few will be 
found who will not receive some perfect points, but few will 
score higher than 95 points in total. A 70 to 80 point 
salesman may be considered fair. A salesman receiving 
from 80 to 90 should be called good; and one getting above 
90 is excellent. The 100 point salesman is the ideal. 

Use of the score card for salesmen. —Not only is the 
score card for salesmen a means for a fair estimate of 
salesmen by the employer, but it is also an outline which 
should be of help to the individual salesman. It will help 
him to discover his own weak points and will serve as a 
guide to what he should do in improving himself. Each 
quality can be built up systematically, and the salesman can 


STANDARDS OF EFFICIENCY 


make from the list such selections as he thinks will need 
immediate attention. It will make him more critical of him¬ 
self, for one cannot sit down and read the list through 
thoughtfully without feeling the conviction that he is weak 
in desirable qualities to which he had never given any par¬ 
ticular attention before. It is quite likely that a score card 
in some form or other will be generally used in the future, 
especially in large stores. 


CHAPTER XV 


STORE POLICY 

Importance of store policy. —In the majority of the stores 
of any large city there is not, nor can there be, any great 
difference in the prices. What then, makes the difference 
in the amount of trade in the various stores ? The answer 
is the store’s policy or service to customers. Competition 
in modern retailing is no longer so much a matter of prices 
as it is a matter of supplying the customer with the various 
items of service, such as expert salesmanship, delivery, 
credit, etc. The store’s policy determines its future growth. 

It has already been noted that a policy of honesty is abso¬ 
lutely essential, but this is not enough. The manner in 
which goods are sold, cared for, inspected, wrapped, and 
delivered, is important to most customers. 

One effective means of determining the results of the pol¬ 
icy of a store upon its customers is for a salesman or man¬ 
ager of a store to stand near the door and watch the ex¬ 
pressions and moods of the customers as they are leaving 
the building. If the customers appear to be well satisfied 
and pleased with their visit, one may be sure that the store’s 
policy is on the right track. If there is disgust or dissat¬ 
isfaction depicted in their faces, that is sufficient evidence 
that there should be a change in the policy of the store. 

Weakness of “Get all you can.” —There is a great deal 
of difference in the policies of selling among the various 
retail stores. The motto of some seems to be “get all you 

184 


STORE POLICY 


can” or, expressed in another way, “charge all the traffic 
will bear.” Such a policy does not attach to itself any 
great amount of public satisfaction. Trade that comes to 
a store with this policy comes there because it cannot get 
the same goods elsewhere. With the slightest amount of 
competition in the field, a large percentage of the customers 
of such a store would transfer their trade elsewhere. 

Sell at fair profit. —Another policy is to sell goods for 
a fair profit. This represents, perhaps, the best standard 
of retail service. No man in any industry or occupation 
should be expected to give his service without a fair and 
just return, that return in great measure being determined 
by the returns received by other people engaged in the same 
work. The retailer performs a real service to society and, 
therefore, deserves a fair return for his work. A fair 
profit, then, is his share of the social distribution of wealth. 
To be sure, there will be differences in opinion as to what 
constitutes a fair profit. With good reason it may be stated 
that in some businesses a fair profit, might mean as high 
as 50 per cent, or in others it might mean as low as 2 per 
cent, or 3 per cent, upon the capital investment. What is 
fair depends very largely upon the conditions surrounding 
the business, especially the risk of losses. It can be seen 
that if there is a probability of losses that may in a short 
time wipe out any accumulated surplus, it becomes neces¬ 
sary to charge such higher prices for the goods sold as to 
cover these expected losses. 

“Sell as cheaply as you can.” —“Sell as cheaply as you 
can” is a third policy, which may be very attractive to cus¬ 
tomers; but when carried out by merchants who are not 
fully aware of the possibilities of losses, or who do not 
carefully compute all of the costs that enter into their 
business, it is likely to end in destruction of the business 
itself. To sell for a fair profit may well mean to sell as 
cheaply as one can, but, in the ordinary sense, selling as 

185 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


cheaply as one can usually means to turn the goods at a 
very narrow margin above cost. Merchants do not do this 
usually unless they wish to undersell other dealers to such 
an extent as to draw their trade. Something can be said 
for this policy as an advertising feature, but, when it is 
carried out, any losses that may occur should be charged to 
advertising expense, and must, necessarily, be made up in 
the sale of goods in other lines or at some other time. 

Quality of goods. —The policy of the house determines 
what qualities of goods shall be handled, and the people of 
the community quickly come to understand what this policy 
is. There is absolutely no argument for or against hand¬ 
ling goods of any particular grade or quality, except the 
policy of the house in its attempt to reach certain classes of 
trade. If it wishes the trade of the people whose standards 
of living are high, its goods must necessarily be of high 
quality; but, on the other hand, if the store is located where 
the great majority of the people have a low income, and 
must necessarily have relatively low standards of living, the 
quality of goods sold must be correspondingly low; but 
whatever the quality selected, it should be based upon a 
careful and predetermined policy, after a thorough study of 
the local conditions with respect to the probable customers 
that the store can draw upon. 

Trade-marked and nationally advertised goods. —The 
question as to whether a store should handle trade-marked 
and nationally advertised goods or not is a vital one. There 
are many arguments for the handling of goods of this sort. 
In the first place, some of these goods are well known to 
everybody. The name of the brand is at the tip of the 
tongue every time a want for such an article is felt. It is 
obvious that a store, to serve its customers, must carry such 
goods. There may be substitutes equally good, and yield- 
ing greater profits per sale for the merchant, yet the ease 
of selling the well-known brand and the amounts sold more 


STORE POLICY 


than make up for the possible difference in the profit on 
each sale. In the second place, national advertisers try to 
create sentiment among consumers against substitution and 
in favor of their products. This advertising, which the 
manufacturer calls “educational,” is likely to be effective 
among those classes of consumers who are constant readers 
of papers and magazines. There will, in consequence, be 
a demand for goods, and this demand the retailer can take 
advantage of. A retailer can even go further than merely 
supplying the demands already created; he can take advan¬ 
tage of the national advertising in his locality by advertis¬ 
ing that he carries the advertised goods. Many dealers have 
shrewdly used the advertising material of manufacturers to 
their own credit and profit. Many stores have found it 
profitable to feature nationally advertised goods in their 
newspaper space. Others have done as a Wisconsin drug¬ 
gist did, who drew considerable trade by making up a win¬ 
dow display of advertising pages clipped from widely known 
magazines of recent publication, each page containing the 
advertising of some toilet article, soap, perfume, safety razor, 
etc. In the center of this display he placed a large card with 
the statement, “You Can Buy These Goods Here.” 

However, there are certain disadvantages to the policy of 
handling nationally advertised goods, w-hich should be 
clearly stated. In the first place, the nationally advertised 
goods usually cost the retailer more and, therefore, in a 
competitive market must be sold at a narrower margin of 
profit than non-advertised goods. Whether this higher cost 
is due to higher quality or to the expense of advertising, 
is immaterial at this point. So far as quality is concerned, 
the merchant should know what he is buying no matter 
what his market is In the food stuffs, strict enforcement 
of the pure food laws will have just as certain effects in 
insuring quality as a trade-mark or much magazine adver¬ 
tising. It seems likely that it is only a question of time 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


when all necessities of life must be branded or labeled so 
as to show accurately what the contents or construction 
may be. If the merchant fails to use a good buyer’s judg¬ 
ment, and handles goods which vary in quality, he will find 
that he will lose customers after every drop in the quality. 
If the buyer cannot guard against this, then there is an 
argument for advertised and trade-marked goods. But not 
in every instance is a large advertising appropriation and a 
well-known trade-mark a guaranty of constancy in quality. 
There are numerous instances of gradual reduction in qual¬ 
ities after a demand for an article has been well built up, 
although the manufacturer is the chief sufferer from such a 
condition. 

Where the advertised or trade-marked goods are han¬ 
dled through the regular trade channels and sold to any 
dealer, there is not so much of a problem as when the man¬ 
ufacturer controls his own distribution and sells directly 
to the retailers. Frequently a retailer agrees to handle a 
manufacturer’s article upon being assured that he will have 
the exclusive selling rights in the town. In other cases, the 
retailer may agree to act as agent for the article. In either 
case, the store ties itself to a distant concern that sometimes 
cares nothing for it beyond the trade that comes from it. 
Nearly every merchant of experience can cite instances in 
which the retailer expended much time, energy, and money 
in building up a local reputation for the goods placed with 
him by the manufacturer or his representative, only to have 
his account taken away from him because of some mis¬ 
understanding, or because the manufacturer believed that 
some other store would bring in a greater amount of trade. 
To be sure the fault is not always the manufacturer’s when 
an account is taken away from a retailer; the retailer may be 
inefficient or tricky; but there are enough cases of manufac¬ 
turers’ failing to live up to their end of the agreement, to 
warrant calling attention to this matter. 


188 


STORE POLICY 


The helps or assistance given by manufacturers vary in 
value greatly, on account of the varying ability of the 
manufacturers’ advertising men to grasp the local situation 
and prepare for it. Though much of this material is ex¬ 
cellent and very valuable to the retailer in pushing sales— 
better than most retailers have either the time or ability to 
prepare—still it aims at the sale of only a particular line of 
goods, and if the retailer does not use this material judi¬ 
ciously, he will find other departments in his store losing 
ground. 

Manufacturers make a good deal of the “great wrong of 
substitution.” When examined from a broad standpoint of 
social welfare, there is little to sustain their contention. 
Merchants must substitute for goods not obtainable. What 
wrong is there in substituting a good article that one has, 
for one that is not on hand, or even for one that is on hand, 
but which for some reason the merchant does not wish to 
push? To be sure, the national advertiser maintains that 
after he has created a demand for an article through his 
advertising, it is wrong for the retailer to take advantage 
of the market so created by supplying some other product. 
This is, no doubt, bad for the advertiser, but is it any more 
than an ordinary risk of business? He must hazard his 
chances of success with many forms of competition that will 
arise and this is but one of them. It is the business of the 
retailer to supply the demands of his customers in a way 
entirely satisfactory to them, and in a way that will yield 
the best profit to him. If a customer will not take a sub¬ 
stitute or will not be as well satisfied with the substitute as 
with an article asked for, then the retailer will lose. That 
is the criterion of what is right and what is wrong in this 
economic field. From a social standpoint honest goods at 
fair prices, efficient service, and satisfied consumers are the 
things desired of business. In the long run, it makes little 
difference how these things are achieved. Trade-marks, 

189 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


mottoes, slogans, and magazine advertising are only a means 
to this end. Some other means might serve just as well. 
Trade-marks and advertising are used by manufacturers 
simply because they hope to profit thereby. The retailer is 
amply justified in applying the same test in his own business 
regarding any proposition made to him to share in the plans 
of the larger dealer; viz., will it pay him? 

Most retailers can handle some widely advertised and 
trade-marked goods to advantage, but they should not forget 
that there is a real problem in connection therewith. Some 
retailers in the larger cities have found it profitable to handle 
only such goods as they may have the opportunity of put¬ 
ting their own brand names upon. There is one situation, 
however, in which nationally advertised and trade-marked 
goods undoubtedly offer the best opportunities to the re¬ 
tailer, and that is in the small town where the local brand 
or name of the dealer stamped on the goods would not be 
nearly so effective in selling them, as the nationally known 
trade-mark of the manufacturer. Manufacturers and other 
large distributors who use national advertising are rapidly 
coming to see the retail merchant's point of view, and are 
fitting their policies to the needs of the retailer. The real 
interests of the retailer and the manufacturer are the same 
and, to the extent that both realize this fact, it will be pos¬ 
sible for them to co-operate to their common advantage. 

One price to all. —Each store must decide for itself what 
policy it shall follow regarding the prices it shall charge— 
whether it shall have a sliding scale or one price to all. It 
may be said that the tendency is' growing in all directions 
to adopt the one price policy. It has many advantages, 
and is, in fact, absolutely essential in large department 
stores. A one price policy raises the standards of retailing. 
It increases the faith of the customer in the house; it places 
competition upon a higher plane. The one price house is 
tempted from time to time, and tempted sorely, to depart 


190 


STORE POLICY 


from its rule. This temptation, unless it is firmly resisted, is 
the great obstacle to the success of the policy; for if any 
customer buys his goods at any time at less than the stated 
regular price he loses his confidence in the house at that 
point, and the efficacy of its advertising is weakened there¬ 
after. It may be stated as a rule that if the one price 
policy is adopted, to be successful it must be followed to 
the letter and not departed from under any circumstances. 

Getting new business. —There are standards in retailing 
that have to do with the methods of getting new business; 
they constitute a part of the so-called retail store ethics. A 
few years ago, comparatvely, no storekeeper went beyond 
the doors of his store to solicit trade in any manner. Later, 
modern advertising was introduced. At first all advertis¬ 
ing was stiff and formal, being, on the whole, but little more 
than general notices to the effect that certain lines of goods 
were for sale. More recently the advertising of retail stores 
has adopted the style and tenor of “news.” This is now 
considered to be the best as well as the most effective kind 
of advertising. 

There is still an open question as to whether the retail 
store may not take one step further and go out to solicit 
trade from house to house. There are circumstances under 
which this would result in injury to the business, but on 
the whole the stores that have attempted it are succeeding. 
As an example of successful personal solicitation, the fur¬ 
niture houses in many cities have carried out a well-defined 
policy of selling house-furnishings of various kinds by per¬ 
sonal solicitation, especially to such persons as have just 
moved from one home to another within the city, or have 
come to the city from some other town. These houses have, 
as a first step, carefully devised systems of getting informa¬ 
tion regarding the people who are moving, or who have 
just moved, usually with the co-operation of men who make 
a specialty of moving furniture and household goods. 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Other retail stores which have not adopted the policy of 
selling by house to house solicitation, send representatives 
to visit all of the homes in the community, simply to adver¬ 
tise the house, to call attention to the goods that the store 
has for sale, and to invite the people to inspect them. 

Some merchants, especially grocers, have found the tele¬ 
phone to be effective in solicitation. Telephone order boards, 
where one or more operators call up the customers of the 
store each morning and make inquiries concerning their 
needs for the day are found in many places; this method 
of solicitation could be advantageously used in many other 
stores. 

Meeting competition. —What policy should be adopted 
in meeting competition is another important point for a 
store to decide. The most successful merchants keep close 
watch of competition in their communities; but they say 
nothing in public about competition. “Knocking” is abso¬ 
lutely proscribed. It is a recognized psychological fact 
that if one dealer begins to find fault with others, the 
people who hear him have their attention called to his 
competitors, and, in many cases, they have their curiosity 
and even interest aroused to the extent of wishing to see 
what it is that the competitor has to offer; in other words, 
they resolve to give the competitor a trial. There is a sensi¬ 
ble saying: “If your competitor talks about you, put him 
on the pay-roll; never mind what he says , so long as he 
talks.” 

Business courtesy. —After the fundamental policies of 
quality of goods to be handled, prices to be charged, meth¬ 
ods of getting business, etc., are adopted, there are still 
other policies to be considered, which refer more directly 
to the manner in which the business is to be conducted, as 
between the house and its patrons. The chief of these 
policies has to do with the degree of courtesy shown by 
the employes of the store to the customers. We have 


192 


STORE POLICY 


already spoken of the necessity of treating visitors who 
come to the store humanly and decently, as a part of good 
salesmanship. Here we need to emphasize courtesy as a 
valuable store policy to be followed not only by the sales¬ 
men, but also by the elevator boys, cashiers, inspectors, 
credit man, janitor, delivery man, and everyone else con¬ 
nected with the store in any way. 

The average customer is suited best if met at the door 
immediately upon entering with a polite salutation and 
inquiry as to the particular department or article in which 
she is interested. This inquiry needs to be made with ap¬ 
propriate deference and respect to the customer, and solely 
with the purpose of being of assistance. 

When the customer reaches the department where she 
desires to see goods, the salesman should come forward 
promptly, and no other store work of any kind should keep 
him a moment from doing this. No other work in a store 
is so important as serving the customer. The only case 
when the salesman may not come forward to place himself 
at the disposal of the customer is when he is already occu¬ 
pied in caring for other customers. But even then he 
should at least nod recognition to the newcomer, with a 
word of excuse and with an explanation that he will be ready 
to serve her in a few minutes. 

If possible, he should give her something to do, some 
goods to examine or, in some departments, she may be 
offered a chair so that she may be seated. The main point 
is to get her to feel at home, to feel that her presence is 
wanted, and that each one in the store will gladly do all 
he can for her. 

Store democracy. —Store employes need to be demo¬ 
cratic, sensible, and never snobbish. In many stores there 
are employes of various ranks who'adjust their attitude to 
the appearance of the customer. Well dressed, rich-looking 
prideful people receive altogether more than their share of 


193 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


the deference and respect of the store’s employes. Not that 
these classes of people should not receive attention, but care¬ 
ful attention and courteous treatment should be accorded to 
every store visitor regardless of appearance of wealth and 
class. What should not occur is well illustrated by the fol¬ 
lowing experience in a store: 

A woman dressed in plain garments, of slightly out-of- 
date fashion, and somewhat worn appearance, waited pa¬ 
tiently for a saleswoman in the coat department to finish 
with a customer who had preceded her. Finally the sales¬ 
woman came forward and made the usual inquiries of the 
customer. In the meantime the saleswoman had “sized her 
up” from head to foot. Suppressing a yawn, she remarked, 
“I suppose you want something cheap,” and turned on her 
heel to bring out a cheap coat to show. The customer, who 
was really a cultured woman of considerable means, shocked 
at the rudeness of the saleswoman, turned and walked out, 
transferring a sale of some value, together with her future 
trade, to a rival store. Considerable trade is lost to every 
store because of rudeness of this kind. 

Treatment of customers who do not buy. —Some sales¬ 
men apparently do not know how to act toward customers 
if a sale is not made. A customer who had failed to get 
what she wanted in one store stated that because she in¬ 
sisted on not purchasing a substitute for the article she 
wanted, she was made to feel like “an ignoramus and a 
sneak.” This is a strong expression, but it does in some 
degree represent how the feelings of customers may be 
ruffled by untactful store employes when a sale is not made. 
The store loses not only one sale, but also the customer’s 
future trade, and possibly the trade of the customer’s 
friends. 

Telephone courtesy. —Every store needs to pay special 
attention to its telephone calls. In no other phase of the 
store’s activities does courtesy pay better, and in no other 


194 


STORE POLICY 


activity is its lack so easily noticed. Many whose voices 
are rough and whose speech is uncouth are misunderstood 
and misinterpreted over the phone. The roughness or other 
peculiarity in voice or speech is taken to mean discourtesy, 
when the face and manner of the person speaking would 
disprove the intention entirely. Everyone who answers tele¬ 
phone calls in a business place should be thoroughly schooled 
in telephone courtesy. All brusqueness, curt expressions, 
roughness of voice, or snappishness in speech should be 
eliminated entirely. Telephoning is a fine art, and few 
can do it satisfactorily, not because it is difficult but be¬ 
cause of failure to imagine what the effects of the sound of 
the voice or the speech will be on the auditor when it is 
not possible to modify the effect of the voice and speech 
by facial expression. 

The answer at the telephone. —When the telephone bell 
rings, the tone of voice of the clerk who answers the call 
must be taken into account. A dull, machine-like droning 
answer is even worse than a slovenly, heedless clerk back 
of a counter. The merchant who would keep such a clerk 
could hardly be found, and yet the best merchants some¬ 
times do not give enough consideration to the way in which 
telephone calls are answered. 

There is scarcely anything that attracts more good will 
to a house than a bright, vivacious, cheery voice over the 
telephone. A clear enunciation, a tone that is optimistic 
and wide awake, a diction that denotes friendliness rather 
than the too frequent “Why do you disturb me?” attitude 
—these are better assets than mahogany office chairs and 
costly bronze doors. 

One of the worst offenses against telephone courtesy is 
the common custom of answering a telephone call by say¬ 
ing “Hello!” This is a waste of time, a source of annoy¬ 
ance, and an indication of lack of knowledge of modern 
business methods. When the telephone bell rings, the per- 


*95 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


son who picks up the receiver should immediately tell the 
name of the store. Thus: The bell rings. An employe puts 
the receiver to his ear, and says “This is The Fair,” or “This 
is Brown & Smith’s.” The person at the other end of the 
wire can then immediately begin his message without any 
intervening interchange of meaningless “Hello’s” or sim¬ 
ilar expressions. If the telephone call is answered by an 
employe of one department, he may say, “This is Brown & 
Smith’s silk department.” 

Suit the individual customer. —Large stores usually de¬ 
velop mechanical ways of doing things. So far as material 
things are concerned, system is an advantage; but system 
is likely to be detrimental when it comes to handling cus¬ 
tomers. The small store succeeds because it caters to in¬ 
dividuals : it serves them in the way in which they want to be 
served. Each individual’s hobbies, and we all have them, 
need to be considered in the methods and policies of re¬ 
tailing. This is difficult, but no less necessary, in the 
larger store. The customer needs to be humored. The 
store service exists for that purpose. The “Smith way,” 
the “Brown way,” or the “Jones way” of doing business, 
if it means to make all customers go through the same 
system in getting goods, is wrong and unprofitable. Sys¬ 
tem in a store needs to be effective, but should not intrude 
itself unduly upon the customer. His individuality must 
never be jolted so long as he does no wrong. The most 
successful store is the one that can adjust its selling methods 
most readily to the greatest number of individuals. 

Treatment of brides. —There are certain classes of peo¬ 
ple that stores should make a special effort to reach and 
to please. One of the most important of these classes is 
the bride. Her wants and expressions of individuality 
should be met with the utmost delicacy, helpfulness, and 
courtesy. She is laying the foundation of a home. Where 
she receives excellent treatment at the start, she will likely 

196 


STORE POLICY 


continue to trade for the years to come. The friendly help 
that a merchant or his expert salespeople can give to her in 
many ways, showing her how she can buy and utilize her 
purchases to the best advantage, will be remembered with 
thankfulness ever afterwards. 

Treatment of children. —Another class with which a 
store must cultivate the friendliest of relations is the chil¬ 
dren. Only a few years will pass before they become the 
store’s customers. If your store is in business then, it will 
need their trade, but the foundations of that trade are to 
be laid today. It is wise and profitable to treat the chil¬ 
dren well, answer their questions kindly, and keep them most 
tactfully from doing any mischief. Never discourage their 
coming. Get them to come, and to see what you have in 
your store. Their suggestions at home, at the table or 
elsewhere, when the family is considering new purchases, 
will often be followed. 

Another class to reach. —One other class that it will 
be profitable for a store to make a special effort to reach 
is made up of the members of the community whose leisure 
is abundant, whose principal diversion is “visiting,” and 
whose faculty for telling things is dominant. These per¬ 
sons can do a store immense damage by aiding in the circula¬ 
tion of uncomplimentary reports of its merchandise, prices, 
or service. Even if their hearers come to the store after¬ 
wards, they cannot help being in somewhat suspicious 
frames of mind, and may as a result construe evil where 
none really exists. On the other hand, if stories become cur¬ 
rent that a store’s merchandise and its service are good, 
and the prices right, the store will be greatly benefited. Such 
advertising is better than printer’s ink and it costs nothing 
more than carefulness in service. 

Treatment of complaints. —Every store needs to have a 
well defined, wisely planned policy regarding the treatment 
of complaints, A few years ago it was customary to 


197 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


consider a sale once made as closed, and complaints after¬ 
wards raised were not attended to. Modern merchandising 
under competitive conditions has forced merchants to change 
their policy upon this point, and quite rightly. 

An article is never fully sold until it is consumed, although 
this idea may not be recognized in law. Practice has shown 
that a store serves its purpose best when it sells goods that 
give satisfaction in the using. To force dissatisfied cus¬ 
tomers to adhere to “a bargain” is bad selling. 

Many stores have made great growth on the principle of 
“Money back if you want it,” or “Satisfaction guaranteed.” 
A few have gone still further, and declare it their policy 
to “Remember that the customer is always right” in his com¬ 
plaints. This is difficult under some circumstances, and 
the stores following this policy are imposed upon in a few 
cases, but in the long run this policy is bound to win. When 
a dissatisfied customer comes to the store with a complaint 
that the goods were defective, the service bad, or that the 
salesman did not tell the whole truth, the best policy de¬ 
mands that her story be given full credence at once by the 
complaint department, or, as it is better called, the adjust¬ 
ment department. The causes of the complaint are 
carefully traced, but the customer is satisfied whether the 
store loses or not, even if the customer is in the wrong. 

One merchant shows the working of this principle by say¬ 
ing that a man entered his store to buy some yarn for his 

wife. She told him to get A- yarn, but he forgot the 

name. When the salesman suggested Spanish yarn, he 
replied that he was quite sure that was what his wife had 
asked for. He had the yarn sent to his home. His wife 
found that it was not the brand she ordered, and promptly 
concluded that the error was caused by the store. She took 
the yarn back, and berated the salesman and adjustment 
clerk in no uncertain terms. These people, who knew the 
situation, were tactful in not antagonizing her further by 

198 



STORE POLICY 


telling her the facts in the case. They simply made the 
exchange and apologized for the error. The merchant 
thought that when the husband heard of what had happened, 
he would be so grateful that the store could count on him 
ever afterward as a friend and customer—and he was 
right. 

Treatment of apgry customers. —How to treat angry 
customers or those who are intentionally rude to the sales¬ 
people is always a problem. The retailer and his assist¬ 
ants draw all the faultfinding that is due to unsatisfactory 
goods, because they are nearer to the public than the whole¬ 
saler or the manufacturer. This is as it should be. The 
people depend upon the merchant for the goods. They pay 
him the price he asks for his service. As an expert, it is 
his duty to buy from the wholesaler and the manufacturer 
only such goods as will satisfy his customers. When he 
fails to do this, the disapproval of his customers is merited. 
But there are some people who, through lack of training 
or proper sense of what is right, will enter a store and 
upon the slightest provocation abuse and insult the store’s 
employes. The salesman’s attitude under such trying cir¬ 
cumstances is strongly indicative of his selling ability. No 
salesman should consider rudeness or insults as personal 
matters. The customer may talk to you personally, but 
you are acting for the firm, and what is said is really abuse 
or insult for the firm. When the salesman can assume 
this attitude he has taken a long step in the direction of 
successful selling. If anything can be done by the firm 
to allay the customer’s anger, it should be done; other¬ 
wise the best thing for the salesman to do is to keep still, 
or tc refer the matter to some one higher in authority 
than he. No possible good can come from “answering 
back.” If the rude customer cools off, it may be entirely 
right to call his attention to his error, and to suggest that 
an apology is due. If this is done properly after the cus- 


199 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


tomer has had his explosion, it is likely that he will see 
his mistake and be willing to make reparation, but not so if 
he has received opposition while angry. Insults are best 
met by dignity and silence. 

General store service. —There are a number of things 
that a store can do for its customers, things which bring 
good will and future trade. It is a distinct service that 
is more or less appreciated to have the store heated, lighted, 
and ventilated so as to have it comfortable for the custom¬ 
ers. Drinking water and toilet conveniences, waiting and 
rest rooms will draw people to your store, and sales will 
result from their visits. The elevators are service, in this 
sense, to customers. Free telephones and writing tables are 
other profitable accessories of a store if properly located 
in the building and well advertised. 

Some large stores have found it profitable to conduct 
children’s nurseries and play rooms, where the children may 
be “checked” and cared for while the mother is shopping 
in the store. Limitations must be placed upon this sort of 
service, for the privilege is sometimes abused. In the first 
place, it has been found necessary to make a rule to take 
no children in the nursery under six months of age. Sec¬ 
ondly, the children can usually be left in the nursery for 
only one hour. The mother must leave her name and ad¬ 
dress with the persons in charge, and also state what de¬ 
partments of the store she will visit; If she has not returned 
at the end of the hour, an attendant looks her up and re¬ 
ports that the time has expired. For older children, of 
ages from two to six, the play room has proved a strong 
business feature, for the reason that articles like those used 
by the children in their play are often sold to the mother 
after she learns how interested a child has become in them. 
Lunch rooms, where meals or lunches are served at moder¬ 
ate expense, are not only a store service but are a profitable 
investment for many stores. 


200 


STORE POLICY 


Special store service. —Whatever else may be included 
in the policy of a store towards customers, it is clear that 
the selling should be as expert as possible. Salesmen should 
know their goods so that they may be able to give expert in¬ 
formation and advice to customers. Some stores have found 
it exceedingly profitable to have their salespeople make a 
point of instructing the customers in the uses of the goods 
they purchase. One store, at least, employs a so-called 
“Style Adviser”— a person whose entire time is at the dis¬ 
posal of customers who desire advice upon matters of 
style as applicable to themselves. This service is given 
without charge and without placing the customer under any 
obligation to make purchases. The salesmen in every re¬ 
tail business can specialize on their goods and build up 
a reputation for expert ability in giving good advice, no 
matter what their line may be. 

Delivery service. —All customers like promptness. The 
following remark is common: “I like to trade at Blank’s be¬ 
cause I get waited on right away, and because I know 
that the goods I order will be delivered in time for me to 
use them as I have planned.” This means careful attention 
to orders, systematic inspection and wrapping, and prompt, 
careful delivery. In these matters, the policy of the house 
is made very plain to the public. A package well wrapped, 
labeled in a simple, legible manner, and delivered by busi¬ 
ness-like delivery men is an external and easily understood 
evidence of the way in which the store wants to do business. 
It is quite likely that most stores do not look after their 
delivering carefully enough. Often the delivery man is 
the only representative of the store that the householder 
meets. If he is lazy, slovenly in appearance, and lacking 
in promptness and tact, the impression made is not good. 
The expert deliveryman, be he old or young, is quick, cour¬ 
teous, well-kept, full of business vim, careful, and pains¬ 
taking. His greatest anxiety is to get the goods to the 


201 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


customer’s home in the best possible condition, and to de¬ 
liver them in such manner as to suit everybody. His mind 
needs to be fixed upon every detail of his work, or he will 
fail. A good deliveryman is not appreciated as much as 
he should be by store managers. The appearance of his 
horse and wagon or automobile is important. No merchant 
can afiford to lose the advertising that comes through having 
a prosperous looking delivery outfit. 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE COST OF SELLING 

Interest in cost accounting. —Men who are in a position 
to know retail business conditions over wide areas, fre¬ 
quently claim that only a few storekeepers, the country 
over, figure the cost of the merchandise sold in any ade¬ 
quate way. It seems to be usual to neglect, or to omit, such 
items as rent when the building is owned, interest on the 
investment, salary of the manager, and wages of members 
of the family who assist in the store. As a progressive step 
in the campaign for efficiency, there is coming to be an 
insistent demand to know just what it costs in every de¬ 
partment to sell the goods. This demand is not only from 
the owners and managers of retail stores, but the same de¬ 
mand also comes from bankers, credit men, and even the 
government. Bankers want to know if their customers are 
conducting their businesses on safe lines. Credit men base 
their judgments more and more upon evidences of efficient 
management and economical methods. The government, in 
theory, should tax a business like an individual in proportion 
to its ability to pay, but ability to pay cannot be determined 
without standards of the cost of running a business, and 
standards of what a business can do. 

A bankers’ association submitted to the National Credit 
Men’s Association a set of questions by means of which 
they hoped to get information concerning the majority of 


203 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


ordinary business establishments. The questions were as 
follows: 

1. What is a safe percentage for gross profit? 

2. What is a fair average percentage for expense of doing 

business ? 

3. What is a fair rate of depreciation? 

The National Credit Men’s Association had no data upon 
which to base an authoritative reply. There is certainly need 
for careful study of these matters. 

What is profit. —When retail merchants speak of profit, 
they usually mean the difference between the cost of the 
goods and the selling price. This definition has been recog¬ 
nized by a Wisconsin state court. However, no definition 
could be less exact unless profit is re-defined so as to include 
a lot of things that go by other names. For example, a 
manufacturer does not mean by profit the difference between 
the cost of the raw material which he buys and the amount 
received for his finished goods. Everybody recognizes that 
in a factory there must be taken out of this difference large 
sums for the wages of labor, other sums for the purchase 
and upkeep of machinery, and other sums for rent, transpor¬ 
tation, selling expenses, and so on. The case is not differ¬ 
ent in the retail store. There is the labor—salesmen, de¬ 
livery men, bookkeepers, and other employes—which must 
be paid. There is the store and its fixtures which must 
be paid for and kept in good repair; and there are the gen¬ 
eral expenses similar to those of the factory. The true 
profit of a store is what remains after all of these expenses 
have been paid. 

Economic profit. —Political economists show that there 
are five different kinds of income— wages or salaries for 
labor, rent for land, interest for capital, insurance for risk, 
and profit as a return for special skill in management. 
Profit is what is left over after every expense has been paid. 
To obviate the difficulty in the common use of the term, 


204 


THE COST OF SELLING 


business men make use of the words “gross profit” and “net 
profit.” Gross profit, according to common usage, is the 
name for the total difference between the original cost of the 
goods and the selling price. Net profit represents real 
economic profit—what is left of this difference after all ex¬ 
penses have been paid. 

How profits are computed. —Accompanying the variety 
of definitions and much misunderstanding of the term 
profit, there is equal dissimilarity in methods of computing 
profit. If the stock of a store could be cleaned out entirely 
at regular intervals, it would be easy to find the gross profit 
by simply subtracting the cost price from the selling price 
of the goods. But as stocks are rarely sold out in a going 
concern, account must be taken of what is on hand when 
the profits are computed. In other words, an inventory 
must be taken. The total purchases less the goods on hand 
must equal the goods sold, or, putting the same thing in 
money values, the total purchase cost, less the value of the 
goods on hand, equals the cost of the goods sold. Subtract¬ 
ing this amount from the selling price will give the gross 
profit. Expressed in the form of an equation, the gross 
profit becomes: 

Sales — (Purchases — Inventory) = Gross Profit 

But in bookkeeping it seems to be easier to vary the mathe¬ 
matical operation a little; the usual method of finding gross 
profit is to add the inventory to the sales and then from this 
total to subtract the purchase cost. The result is exactly 
the same if either method is followed. The equation show¬ 
ing the second method is as follows: 

Sales + Inventory — Purchases = Gross Profit 

How to take the inventory. —But how shall the inventory 
be taken? This is a question that has been much disputed 
by practical merchants. Some merchants list goods at billed 
prices; others at billed prices plus freight; others include 


205 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


cartage, while still others include storage and buying ex¬ 
pense. Some merchants inventory at net costs when dis¬ 
counts are offered and taken, and others inventory at net 
costs whether the discounts are taken or not. Some mer¬ 
chants inventory goods on some of the cost bases suggested 
above, but with deductions for depreciation in value of 
goods. Some inventory at present cost of replacement. 
Not a few inventory at selling prices; that is, at what the 
goods will probably bring. 

It is evident that each of these methods would bring a 
different result in the gross profit shown. Which is the 
right way? Anyone of several of the methods suggested 
would be correct if the merchant using it fully understood 
what it stood for, and if its limitations were properly con¬ 
sidered. For example, inventorying at the selling values of 
the goods has a most useful purpose, but not in finding the 
gross profits. Such an inventory should be taken occa¬ 
sionally by every store. But most merchants agree that an 
inventory at cost is the only proper one for accounting pur¬ 
poses. 

The main difficulty seems to hinge upon the meaning of 
the term “cost.” Several meanings can be given to the word, 
and each might be sound from the standpoint of the one who 
gives it. 

Merchants sometimes speak of the cost of the goods and 
of the cost of doing business. This is likely to be confusing. 
It is better to speak of the cost of the goods and of the 
expense of doing business. In order to distinguish defi¬ 
nitely between these two things, let us examine for a min¬ 
ute the factors that enter into the price at which goods are 
sold. First, there is the amount of money spent to bring 
the goods into, or under the control of, the store. This 
should include the actual price at which the goods are 
bought, together with the charges incurred to put the goods 
on the shelves of the store or in any other place where it 


206 


THE COST OF SELLING 


is necessary for them to be in order to be sold. Second, 
there is the amount of money spent for the service and 
labor within the store—for the storekeeping, in other words. 
And lastly there is the element of supply and demand—the 
price that customers will be willing to pay for the goods. 
All of these three things enter into the price at which the 
goods must be sold. The first is called cost, the second 
expense, and the last might be called the market value. 

These factors in price have been brought out here because 
they serve to indicate exactly what cost is. It will be noted 
that the characteristic of cost is that it is outside of the 
control of the merchant, except as he may be able to get 
better prices by better bargaining. His store expenses, how¬ 
ever, are entirely within his control. He can have almost 
any location for which he is willing to pay; he can have any 
fixtures he wishes; he can employ good or poor salespeo¬ 
ple as he sees fit; and he can in similar manner control all 
the items of his storekeeping expense. The cost of goods, 
on the other hand, is largely fixed for him by the people 
from whom the goods are bought, and it is this characteristic 
that distinguishes cost from expense. In general, then, 
from the merchant’s standpoint, cost includes net cost of 
goods plus all charges, such as freight and drayage, neces¬ 
sary to lay the goods down at his place of business. All 
outlay up to and including this point makes up the cost of 
the goods to him. All outlay after this point is storekeep¬ 
ing expense. The inventory should, therefore, be taken at 
the net, laid down cost prices. 

In this statement the word net does not mean that the 
goods should be listed at the prices paid after deducting the 
cash discount in those cases in which cash discounts have 
been offered and taken. It means that the goods should be 
listed at the list prices less the ordinary trade discounts, but 
not less the cash discounts. Good accounting practice does 
not recognize cash discounts as a real reduction in the cost 


207 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


of the goods. Cash discounts are usually credited to an 
income account. This is reasonable, because the cash dis¬ 
count is something over which the merchant has control; 
he may, or he may not, take advantage of it, as he sees fit. 
As something within his control, then, it is not a factor 
to be taken into consideration in connection with the cost 
of the goods. 

There is one exception to the rule that the inventory 
should be taken at net, laid down prices. It is clear that no 
useful purpose can be served by keeping to the cost price of 
an article in making out the inventory if the selling value 
has gone down below that cost price. The rule should 
in this case read: Inventory the goods at net cost laid down 
in the store, if that amount is below the selling value, but at 
selling value if the latter is below cost. 

The turn-over.—In a mercantile business where the prof¬ 
its come from buying and selling goods, it is not enough to 
know what the gross profits are for a given period of time. 
One does not learn very much about the condition of a 
business to note in the bookkeeper’s statement that the 
gross profits for the past year were 40% of the sales. 
This does not tell whether the stock was sold out once or 
ten times during the period. It shows nothing of the rapid¬ 
ity with which goods must have been transferred by the 
store in order to gain this 40%. Suppose that the merchant 
should discover that his gross profit is too small by 5% to 
meet the expenses of the business and to leave him a fair net 
profit. How should he mark and sell his goods so as to get 
45 % gross profit? Obviously if he sells out the value of 
his stock once in a year, the adding of something more than 
5% to the present selling price of each article will give him 
the desired gross profit. But if he sells out the value of his 
stock several times during the year, it will not be necessary 
to add 5% of the selling price of each article; for to do so 
would give him a much larger gross profit than the desired 


208 


THE COST OF SELLING 


45% if he succeeded in selling at such an advance. The 
conditions of the ordinary market are such, however, that 
the chances are he could not sell his goods at all if he added 
5% in such an arbitrary manner to the ordinary selling 
prices. In order to know how much to add to the selling 
price of each article to gain a certain gross profit, he must 
first know what his annual turn-over is; that is, he must 
know how many times he sells out completely the value of 
his stock in a year, or during any given period. For ex¬ 
ample, if his stock turns five times, the extra 5% could be 
earned by adding only a little over 1% to the present selling 
price of each article. 

How is turn-over determined?—There is no agreement 
as to the method of finding the number of stock turns. 
Many think they are finding it when they divide the total 
sales by the inventory amount at the beginning of the year. 
Others divide by the inventory at the end of the year. 
The difference may be great, indeed, between these two re¬ 
sults, and there are at least four other methods in actual 
practice. One is to divide the total sales by the average 
value of stock on hand, taking an average of all months in the 
year. Another is to take the approximate cost of the goods 
sold and to divide that by the cost of the average amount 
of stock carried; the average is found as in the preceding 
case. Another method is to divide the total sales by the 
probable selling value of the goods on hand at the begin¬ 
ning of the year; and the confusion in methods is made com¬ 
plete by still another method in which the total sales are 
divided by the selling value of the goods on hand at the last 
inventory. The true turn-over can he found only by divide 
ing total sales by the average selling value of the stock on 
hand; or by dividing the approximate cost of all goods 
sold by the cost of the average stock kept on hand. Other 
methods will serve the purpose in some businesses, and will 
be nearly right in some cases; but the opportunity for great 


209 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


error is always present in them. With the usual accounts 
kept in most stores, there is an element of estimation in 
both of the standard ways. But this element can be con¬ 
siderably reduced by expending a little more well directed 
labor on the keeping of the accounts. It has paid successful 
stores to get the exact figures representing the annual and 
even the semi-annual turn-over. 

The expenses of selling.—With settled methods of find¬ 
ing inventory and turn-over, and, therefore, the method of 
computing gross profits on the whole stock and on single 
articles, there remains to be determined the expenses of the 
business which must be paid out of these gross profits after 
the cost of the goods has been paid. The following table 
presents a detailed list of the ordinary expenses of a retail 
business. This list should be studied carefully. 

EXPENSES OF DOING A RETAIL BUSINESS 

I. Buying expenses: 

1. Salaries and wages of buying force. 

2. Other buying expenses. 

II. Selling expenses: 

1. Salaries and wages of sales force. 

2. Extra selling. 

3. Advertising. 

a. Newspapers. 

b. Circulars. 

c. Other, including displays. 

4. Miscellaneous selling expenses. 

III. Delivery expenses: 

1. Salaries and wages of delivery force. 

2. Other delivery expenses. 

IV. Management expenses and fixed charges: 

1. Rent. 

2. Heat. 


210 


THE COST OF SELLING 


3. Light. 

4. Power. 

5. Repairs and renewals of equipment. 

6. Depreciation of equipment. 

7. Insurance on stock and equipment. 

8. Taxes and licenses. 

9. Management and office salaries. 

10. Office supplies and expenses. 

11. Miscellaneous management expenses. 

V. Losses from bad debts. 

As each item is read, consider it in connection with some 
store with which you are familiar, and determine whether 
such an expense is incurred in the store you have in mind, 
how the amount is expended, what the amount is, and what 
returns are obtained from the expense. 

The National Association of Credit Men have recom¬ 
mended the following rules for figuring costs and profits. 

1. Charge interest on the net amount of your total 
investment at the beginning of your business 
year, exclusive of real estate. 

2. Charge rental on all real estate or buildings 

owned by you and used in your business, at a 
rate equal to that which you would receive if 
renting or leasing the property to others. 

3. Charge in addition to what you pay for hired 

help an amount equal to what your services 
would be worth to others; also treat in like 
manner the services of any member of your 
family employed in the business not on the 
regular pay roll. 

4. Charge depreciation on all goods carried over 

on which you may have to make a less price 
because of change in style, because of dam¬ 
age, or for any other cause. 


211 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


5. Charge depreciation on buildings, tools, fixtures 

or anything else suffering from age or wear 
and tear. 

6. Charge all fixed expenses, such as taxes, insur¬ 

ance, water, lights, fuel, etc. 

7. Charge all amounts donated or subscriptions 

paid. 

8. Charge all incidental expenses, such as drayage, 

postage, office supplies, livery or expenses of 
horses and wagons, telegrams and telephones, 
advertising, canvassing, etc. 

9. Charge losses of every character, including 

goods stolen or sent out and not charged, al¬ 
lowance made to customers, bad debts, etc. 

10. Charge collection expense. 

11. Charge any other expense not enumerated above. 

12. When you have ascertained what the sum of all 

the foregoing items amounts to, prove it by 
your books, and you will have your total ex¬ 
pense for the year; then divide this figure by 
the total of your sales, and it will show you 
the per cent, which it has cost you to do busi¬ 
ness. 

13. Take this per cent, and deduct it from the price 

of any article you have sold, then subtract 
from the remainder what it cost you (invoice 
price and freight), and the result will show 
your net profit or loss on the article. 

14. Go over the selling prices of the various articles 

you handle and see where you stand as to prof¬ 
its ; then get busy in putting your selling fig¬ 
ures on a profitable basis, and talk it over with 
your competitor as well. 


212 


THE COST OF SELLING 


How much should expense be? —What expense in a retail 
store should amount to is an important question, but not 
one that can be definitely answered, for the reason that 
there have never been complete studies made of the mat¬ 
ter. 

Expenses will differ, no doubt, because of local conditions, 
the size of the city, the character of the trade, and other 
matters. According to the estimates that are available, based 
upon the experience of successful stores, it costs from 
14% to 20% of the total sales to run a grocery business, 
from 16% to 25% of the total sales to run a boot and shoe 
store, from 24% to 35% to run a jewelry store, from 14% 
to 18% to run a hardware store, from 15% to 20% to run 
an agricultural implement business, and from 18% to 25% 
to run a drygoods store. But these figures are really of 
small value, for the reason that the margin between the 
minimum and maximum figures is sufficient to make or 
break any business. If one should take the minimum, how¬ 
ever, as the average for ordinary small towns of less than 
5,000 population, not within fifty miles of some great mar¬ 
keting center, and the maximum as the average for the 
large city store where the service demanded, the rent, and 
the advertising cost are high, he would probably not be far 
from right. 

It is notable, according to Mr. H. G. Selfridge, an Amer¬ 
ican merchant now running an immense store in London, 
England, that the business expense amounts to about 5% 
less there than in this country. 

Nothing but approximations can be given, for the facts 
are not to be had. 

Mark-downs. —After a merchant has determined what his 
percentages of expense are likely to be and what profit he 
would like to get, he must realize that he has the element 
of depreciation to deal with. If he marks his goods at a 
certain price, he knows very well that the chances are many 


213 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 

to one that he cannot clean out the entire lot at the marked 
price. What of the rest? They must be sold at lower 
prices. If they are seasonable goods, they must be disposed 
of at any figure that they will bring. Here a part of the 
expected profit will be lost; possibly a loss will be incurred 
due to selling below the costs of the goods. In order to 
insure the profit and expenses as originally planned, it will 
be necessary to add to the mark-up such a percentage as, in 
the experience of the store, will cover possible reductions 
or mark-downs at the end of the season. The amount of 
this mark-down varies considerably according to the com¬ 
munity, the quality of the buying, and the character of the 
trade. A certain drygoods store asserts that it must 
allow 5 per cent, for mark-downs. Another claims this 
is too high. No doubt, in other places, the amount is too 
low. 

Refer to Plate VI and study the diagram there presented. 
The plate presents merely an illustration, and is applicable 
in its present form to but few articles. The principle illus¬ 
trated by the diagram is the same, however, for all goods 
sold at retail. 

Compute profits and expenses on sales. —We have re¬ 
peatedly spoken of percentages of expense and of profit. 
In most cases, we have indicated that these were percentages 
of the selling price or of total sales, and not of costs. This 
is puzzling to many. The matter is quite simple, however, 
if viewed from the standpoint of the balance sheet made out 
at the end of the year. It is from the total sales that all 
expenses for the year must be paid, and it is from the total 
sales that the profits are derived. This being the case, the 
amount of sales should he taken as the base of computing 
both expenses and profits. 

Some merchants dispute the necessity of computing prof¬ 
its on the basis of sales. There has been a great deal of recent 
discussion upon this point—much of it due to misunderstand- 


214 


COST OF SELLING GOODS AT RETAIL AND NET PROFITS ILLUSTRATED. 

THE ENTIRE COST TO THE STORE THE SELLING THE 

__a-- . PRICE I I REAL 



Is 


n 

& 1U 

n 

H 

< O 
r iu 

ii 

n 


w 

Ph 


IF ANY 














RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


ing. There should be little ground for argument. If one 
means by profit the return upon the investment in the goods, 
then the base upon which the profit should be computed is the 
amount of money paid for the goods. But in retail selling, 
our problem is more than merely investment. The profits 
are more, or should be more, than a mere return for the 
amount of capital invested. In fact the simple investment 
of money in goods, no matter how wisely done, would yield 
nothing. Other investments besides those for goods must 
be made before there can be any return. Retail selling in¬ 
volves investment in goods, labor, management, risk, and 
other variable elements. The results from all of these items 
are measured by the sales of the store. Each of these items 
is a factor in producing the total sales. Each costs some¬ 
thing, or is worth something. We may say that the total 
sales are made up of sums of money due to each of these 
factors. The cost of the goods is but a single item. There 
is no more logical reason for using cost of goods as the 
base on which to figure profits than there is for using the 
cost of the labor, the cost of the rent, or any other single 
item that enters into store costs, except that the cost of 
the goods is considered as the starting point of store 
expense. 

When we say that the expenses of a business amount to 
one-tenth or one-fifth of the total sales, we are stating a 
fact in the way that most people want it stated, in a way 
that is current in other kinds of business as well as in retail¬ 
ing. For example, a manufacturer does not base his ex¬ 
penses upon his cost of materials. It is the value of the 
output, the sales, that he considers as his base. The farmer 
does not figure his expenses upon the cost of the seed that 
he sows; he computes the percentage of expenses on the 
basis of his total income from the crop. True, there are 
differences in manufacturing and farming, and retailing, but 
the underlying principle of figuring profits holds for all. 


216 


THE COST OF SELLING 


The retailer’s service with wholesale lots of goods is in 
principle the same as the manufacturer’s service with re¬ 
spect to raw materials or the farmer’s service with respect 
to seed and natural forces. All three take goods and ma¬ 
terials and make them available for other classes of people. 

Marking the prices. —The main difficulty that arises out 
of the principle of computing expenses on the basis of sell¬ 
ing price rather than on cost, seems to arise when the mer¬ 
chant marks his goods. Recent investigations show that 
many merchants have marked their goods at prices which 
they thought were going to yield good profits, when, in real¬ 
ity the final results showed a loss. How this happens may 
be made clear by illustration. 

The right way. —Suppose that a merchant learns that his 
expense of doing business amounts to 22% of his sales. If 
he buys an article at 75 cents, at what price shall he mark 
it to be sold if he desires to net a profit of 10% ? 

The selling price must be considered as the base, but the 
selling price is made up of the cost, expense, and net profit. 
These items and their relation to the whole may be shown 
as follows: 


Selling Price 


Cost 


Expense Net 
profit 


In the example above the figures are as follows: 
Selling Price 100% 


Cost 75 Cents 


Expense 22% 



Net | 


L 


217 










RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


By adding 22% and 10% together one gets 32%. Sub¬ 
tracting 32% from 100% leaves 68%, which represents the 
cost of the goods. 


Cost. 68% 

Expense. 22% 

Profit. 10% 


Selling price . 100% 

The cost is 68% of the total selling price. In money the 
cost is 75 cents. Then 75 cents is 68% of the total or sell¬ 
ing price. 

68% of selling price=$-75 
1% of selling price—$.75-^68 or $.011 
100% of selling price=ioo X $.011 or $1.10 

Therefore the selling price should be $1.10. 

The wrong way. —Now a great many merchants would 
have made the mistake of trying to solve the problem in the 
following way: 

The cost is $.75, which is to be considered as the base, 
and therefore is to be represented by 100%. 

22%=expense 
io%=profit desired 


32%=what must be added to cost to make the selling 
price. Since the cost is incorrectly considered to be the base, 
the percentage of gross profit is computed on this amount. 

32% of $- 75=$-75 X -3 2 —$- 2 4 

24 cents, then, is the amount that must be added to the cost 
to make the selling price, according to this incorrect method 
of figuring: 

$•75 + $- 2 4 = $-99 selling price 


218 








THE COST OF SELLING 


Loss caused by the wrong method. —It will be noted that 
there is a difference of eleven cents in the selling prices as 
a result of the two methods of computation. The merchant 
loses all the profit, and sells the article practically at cost 
plus expense of doing business when he adopts the lat¬ 
ter method. Not only that, but he fools himself. He 
thinks that he will get a profit of 10%, but this never 
materializes. 

Another example. —Let us take another example showing 
the importance of this matter to the retail store manager. 
Let us assume that he has under consideration a proposal to 
handle an article costing him, laid down in the store, $1.25, 
and which will sell for $1.50. Let us assume in this 
case that the selling expense runs about 18% of the sales. 
Can the merchant afford to handle the article ? 

There would be a gross profit of 25 cents on each article 
sold. Would this be enough to pay the expenses and yield 
some net profit besides? 

Some merchants would reply affirmatively, because they 
would make the mistake of computing the profit in the 
wrong way. They would say: “25 cents is J or 20% of 
the cost, $1.25. My selling expense amounts to 18%. 20% 
— 18% —2% profit. 2% of $1.25 = $.02^4, the amount 
of net profit on each sale.” 

What is wrong about this ? Simply this: the expense of 
selling, 18%, was computed on the sales, and the gross profit, 
20%, was computed as a part of the cost —two entirely 
different bases. In attempting to compare amounts rep¬ 
resenting two entirely different sorts of things, an error 
decidedly dangerous to the business is sure to result. 

Let us see what the result will be if we reduce the 25 
cents in money profit to a percentage of the proper base, the 
selling price, which is $1.50. 

100% of selling price = $1.50, the selling price 
1% of selling price $.015 ($1.50 -r- 100) 


219 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


If $.015 (one and one-half cents) is 1% of the selling 
price, what per cent, of the selling price is $.25, the gross 
profit? The answer is found by dividing .25 by .015. The 
quotient is i6§. Therefore the gross profit, 25 cents, is 
i6§% of the selling price, $1.50. 

In the problem under consideration we assume the cost 
of doing business to be 18% of the total sales. Then, since 
the gross profit is only i6|% of the sales price, there would 
be an actual loss on every article which cost $1.25 laid down 
in the store and which sold for $1.50; and the percentage 
of this loss would be the difiference between 18% and i6§%. 
This difiference is 1^%, figured on sales. The money loss on 
each sale, then, would be i|% of $1.50, or 2 cents. It is 
clear, therefore, that a merchant cannot afiford to handle an 
article costing $1.25 and selling for $1.50, unless his selling 
expense is less than i6|%. 

Compute profits and expenses on the same base. —The 

essential thing is that profits and expenses must be com¬ 
puted upon the same base. If a merchant would take the 
trouble to figure out what his expenses of doing business 
are as a percentage of the cost of the goods that he has sold, 
then it would be permissible to figure profits upon costs also. 
But if expenses are to be considered in relation to the sales, 
as they usually are, then all computations involving gross or 
net profits must also be figured on sales. The general adop¬ 
tion of this latter plan would put merchandise accounting in 
accord with the methods of other businesses. 

For the reason that considerable time is required to find 
what percentage of the cost it takes to equal certain per¬ 
centages on sales, Plate VII will assist the merchant in mak¬ 
ing the proper charges for his goods. 

Retail profits. —The amount of net or true profit that 
well managed successful grocery businesses earn varies from 
2% to 4% of the sales per turn-over; from 3% to 6% in 
boots and shoes; and about the same for drygoods. Many 


220 


THE COST OF SELLING 


CHART SHOWING RELATIVE VALUE OF PER CENT. AT COST AND PER 

CENT. AT SELLING 


At 

-At 

At 

At 

At 

At 

cost 

selling 

cost 

selling 

cost 

selling 

22%. . 

.18.0% 

48%.... 

.32.4% 

74%. 

.42.5% 

23.... 

.18.7 

49 . 

.32.9 

75 - 

.429 

24 . . 

.194 

50 .... 

. 33 h 

76 . 

.43-2 

25 • • 


51 - 

.33-8 

77 .... 

.43-5 

26 . . 

.20.6 

52 - 

.34-2 

78 . 

.43-8 

27 . • 


53 .... 

.34-6 

79 - 

.44-1 

28 . . 


54 . 

.35.1 

80 . 

.44-4 

29 . . 


55 .... 

.35-5 

81 . 

.44-8 

30 . . 


56 . 

.35-9 

82 _ 

.45.1 

31 . . 


57 - 

.36.3 

83 . 

.45-4 

32 . . 


58 .... 

.36.7 

84 . 

.45-7 

33* .. 


59 . 

.37.1 

85 . 


34 • • 

.25.4 

60 .... 

.37-5 

86 . 


35 . . 

.259 

61 _ 

.37-9 

87 . 

.46.5 

36 . . 


62 . 

.38.3 

88 . 

.46.8 

37 • • 


63 .... 

.38.7 

89 . 

.47.1 

38 . . 

.27.5 

64 . 

.390 

90 . 

.47-4 

39 • • 

.28.1 

65 - 

.394 

91 . 

.47.6 

40 . . 

.28.6 

66 _ 

.39-8 

92 . 


41 . • 


67 - 


93 . 

.48.3 

42 • • 


68 . 

.40.5 

94 . 

.48.5 

43 . . 

.30.x 

69 - 

.40.8 

95 . 

.48.7 

44 • • 


70 . 

.41.2 

96 . 


45 . • 

.310 

71 - 

.4i-5 

97 . 

.49.2 

46 . . 

.31.5 

72 - 


98 . 

.49-5 

47 - • 


73 - 


99 . 

.49-7 





100 .... 

.50.0 


PLATE VII. 

Example of Application of the Chart 

If expenses are 27% of the selling price, then 37% of the cost price must be added 
to the cost, in order to make the selling price cover the 27% of expenses. Thus: Cost 
price is $1.00. 37% of $1 00 is 37c. Add 37c. to $r.oo, and the selling price is $1.37. 

As 27% of $1.37 is 37c., it is evident that the selling price includes cost price plus the 
necessary 27% of expenses. 


go beyond these figures, but the concern that nets from 3% 
to 5% on each turn-over may be considered successful in 
retailing. The number of turn-overs varies from one and 
one-half or two to ten a year. In general merchandise, three 
to four turns in a year is considered fairly good business. 

Discounts for cash.—A large element in the profit mak¬ 
ing of a store is the taking of all discounts offered by the 
wholesalers or manufacturers for early cash payments. 
These amount to from 2% to 7%, or even more, from billed 
prices for payments made within ten days, or other stated 


221 






























































































RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


periods. Discounts encourage prompt payments, since they 
are invariably higher than regular rates of interest. From 
the retailer’s standpoint, passing a discount means paying 
an exceedingly high rate of interest for the use of the net 
amount that would have been accepted. From the whole¬ 
saler’s standpoint, the discount, if not accepted, should be 
large enough to cover not only interest on the net amount, 
but also the extra expenses that come to a firm that must 
wait for its money, and the risk of loss of payment which 
increases rapidly as the account grows older. 

Dating. —Bargaining for terms—that is, for discounts 
and dating—is a part of the work of the buyer. In some 
lines the terms are nominally short time, but long in reality, 
because the bills are dated into the future, the discount 
terms beginning with the future date rather than with the 
date of sale. Dating, as this practice is called, is universal 
in certain lines, such as hats and caps, clothing, and other 
goods sold for delivery several months after the date of 
the sale. There is good reason for the practice in these 
lines. In other lines, however, in which delivery is made 
immediately after the sale, the method is an anomaly in 
modern business—a survival of the long time terms of the 
past. It is in this practice of dating that a considerable 
amount of discrimination and underhand competition may 
be accomplished. The store that can secure long dating 
at a time when investments will be profitable, but when its 
convertible assets are low, is in a much better position from 
the buying standpoint than the store that must pay imme¬ 
diate cash, or forfeit its discounts. With coming standard¬ 
ization of the methods of manufacture and of selling, many 
think that big discounts will be reduced and dating elim¬ 
inated. 

Selling price not based alone on costs of selling. —As 

has already been stated, cost and expense are by no means 
the sole factors in determining the selling price of goods. 


222 


THE COST OF SELLING 


Selling price is that amount which goods will command in 
the market. Selling price is the measure of desirability of 
an article to a customer. This desirability may be far 
higher than actual costs of production and selling. The 
point is that merchants should stop handling an article for 
which the demand is so weak that it will not command at 
least a price equal to the sum of the items of cost and ex¬ 
penses. Cost accounting determines accurately what that 
minimum price must be. 


CHAPTER XVII 


BUYING FOR A RETAIL STORE 

Importance of good buying. —It is absolutely essential 
that the buying for a retail store should be well done. Poor 
buying puts unnecessary burdens upon the salesmen, and 
results in the necessity of marking down the selling price 
of the goods in order to get rid of them. The essential prin¬ 
ciple of good buying is to get what the people will want, 
and have it for sale when they want it. The buyer’s sole 
aim should be to buy what he is sure will please his cus¬ 
tomers. He should find the best possible bargains for them 
in both quality and price. When he has done his very best 
in this respect, he is likely to be an enthusiastic salesman, 
and he will be able to convey some of his spirit of confidence 
in the goods to his assistants so that they also will be better 
salesmen. Buying right results in confidence in the goods 
and confidence in their utility for the store’s customers. 

Where to buy. —Where to buy is an important question. 
Shall the goods be ordered from distant markets or from 
the nearest dealers? There is general concurrence in the 
belief that a buyer can do better in the long run by sticking 
to those dealers nearest at hand, whose stocks are complete. 
There are many advantages in forming good trade connec¬ 
tions with a nearby wholesaler, which are missing in con¬ 
nections with distant houses. In the former case the goods 
arrive more promptly; and it takes less time and expense 
to order new goods, to effect exchanges, and to make settle- 


224 


BUYING FOR A RETAIL STORE 


ments. There may also be some advantage in transportation 
charges, though this item must be balanced with any increase 
in prices over those offered by the more distant dealers. 
On the other hand, many merchants try to buy as close to 
the source of supply as possible, as for example, directly 
from the manufacturers. This practice is growing in most 
lines, especially in large stores. In fact, the future of whole¬ 
salers is threatened by a decided movement to “cut out the 
middleman.” It is not likely that wholesalers can be dis¬ 
placed. Their functions are too numerous- and of too great 
value; but readjustments in trading conditions affecting 
them are taking place continually, and the end of this move¬ 
ment is not yet in sight. 

Buy in few places. —There is general concurrence in the 
belief that scattering one’s orders among many dealers is 
not a good practice. This principle suits the wholesaler. 
He says, “Buy all your goods from us. We will then take 
an interest in your firm, let you know about special favorable 
or unfavorable conditions, and give you better prices and 
credit rating than if you should buy from several others 
also.” This is, no doubt, the truth, but the retailer who 
ties up in any way to one wholesaler must do so only upon 
the condition that he does receive the benefits promised. 
If, at any time, the wholesaler should neglect to live up to 
his end of the understanding, the retailer should be in po¬ 
sition to transfer his trade at once to other markets. The 
cases in which wholesalers or manufacturers have taken 
advantage of retailers who had become dependent upon them 
for all goods, are too numerous to be passed over without 
cautioning retailers to be careful in entering into buying 
connections. The wholesaler wants trade and will gladly 
offer many special services to get it; but after he once gets 
it, he has been known to forget to continue the special serv¬ 
ices. The retailer should place his trade, if possible, with 
wholesale houses that deal squarely always, even if their 


22'5 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


prices are a little higher than those of less reliable houses. 

Wholesale houses and manufacturers doing business with 
retailers watch the affairs of their retail customers very 
closely if it is known that they spread their trade around 
among many dealers. The credit rating of such dealers is 
usually lower than that of those who deal with only few 
houses. The man who can buy for cash and asks no fa¬ 
vors of any one, can, if he sees fit, spread his trade where- 
ever he wants to, but experience seems to prove that the 
small dealer with limited capital had better trade with only 
a few good firms. 

Method of buying. —It is advisable that the buyer should 
visit the markets as often as possible, and take his chief 
salesman with him when he goes. These visits are pro¬ 
ductive of good to the buyer and to the store in an educa¬ 
tional way; and often personal visits are helpful in getting 
better prices. Tendencies in style and in custom and new 
improvements may be studied. On the other hand, many 
merchants report that they can get better prices, as a rule, 
when they buy from traveling salesmen who visit their 
stores. The third method of purchasing, namely, ordering 
by mail from catalogs, needs to be compared with the first 
two for any given store and the results of the comparison 
applied in practice. The expense of traveling salesmen in 
the aggregate is enormous, and must, of course, be added 
to the cost of the goods. It would be much better for both 
consumer and retailer if this great amount of money could 
be saved, and the prices of goods to that extent lessened. 
On the other hand, mail-order houses spend perhaps an 
equal amount of money on catalogs and advertising. The 
problem—the general relative cost of distribution of goods 
and of buying through salesmen and by mail—is still un¬ 
solved. Practically speaking, we cannot get along with¬ 
out either salesmen or advertising at the present time. 
Even when products are entirely controlled by monopolies. 


226 


BUYING FOR A RETAIL STORE 


they find it profitable to send traveling salesmen on the 
road to get the business. 

A growing practice is for dealers to co-operate in their 
buying. There is no reason why this plan should not suc¬ 
ceed in some lines and especially with staple articles, pro¬ 
vided enough dealers join in the enterprise to make it prof¬ 
itable to employ a good, professional buyer who knows his 
business. The secret of success in all co-operative industry 
is good management, and good management costs money. 
There is now a kind of co-operation extensively promoted by 
professional buyers. Some of them located in the large mer¬ 
cantile centers make arrangements with stores throughout 
the country to serve as their buying representatives, to watch 
the market, to pick up bargains, and to notify their clients 
of style changes, and so on. For these services each store 
pays a fee. But true co-operation involves the organization 
of the stores themselves, and of this type of organization 
there are but a few examples in this country. It is likely that 
co-operation will be considered much more in the future 
than it has been in the past. In a certain sense, it is the 
logical way for the small dealers to meet the competition 
of the big stores and of the chain store systems. The 
chain stores get all the advantages of co-operative buying 
under their single-head management. 

Bargain hunters. —Many buyers are constantly on the 
lookout for “special bargains,” “job lots,” and “snaps.” 
This is well enough in a way and for certain purposes, but 
the average store does better in stocking from regular lines. 
Bargain hunters come to be known in the wholesale busi¬ 
ness as well as in the retail store, and, whenever they ar¬ 
rive in a jobbing house, the salespeople prepare to meet them 
in such a way as to get their trade and yet not lose any 
money. 

Buy little and buy often.— Discounts on cost prices, 
offered for taking large quantities, are a temptation that 


227 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


every buyer meets. In order to get these better prices, buy¬ 
ers often overstock and thereby tie up good store capital 
with the ultimate result of having to sell much of the stock 
at little or no profit. The only safe rule in this matter is 
to buy only what is absolutely needed to keep up the store’s 
stock, take as much discount as is offered on this amount, 
and then buy often. Most successful businesses aim at small 
but complete stocks and quick turn-overs. This keeps the 
store’s capital in almost constant motion. 

The dealer who buys in small quantities has the oppor¬ 
tunity to buy a greater variety, and by keeping a very close 
watch of his stock so as to prevent being out of anything, 
he may draw more trade and thereby make more profit. 
Some dealers make it a point to order goods every day. 
The policy of buying in small amounts is growing rapidly 
among successful merchants. In certain lines, some mer¬ 
chants actually succeed in disposing of a large part of the 
stock purchased in each bill before the term of discount 
expires. In this way they are able to pay for the goods out 
of the money that has been received from the sales of the 
articles. The doing of business on the capital of the whole¬ 
salers and manufacturers is as satisfactory to them as it is 
to the retailer, provided all bills are met within a stated 
time. In these days of rapid communication by telephone 
and telegraph, especially if the store is within a few hours 
of the sources of supply, this plan can be carried out much 
more extensively than it is at present. In the long run 
the biggest profits are made on quick turn-overs, on new 
goods, and by taking the discounts on all bills. 

Exclusive lines. —Finally, it is frequently a good policy 
to buy exclusive brands or styles, or to take agencies for the 
town. The buyer does this so that his competitors cannot 
get the same lines and open up a price competition. He 
buys wherever he can get uniformly fair treatment and good 
stock, and in the nearest possible market. He does not 


228 


BUYING FOR A RETAIL STORE 


scatter his orders except where necessary, and he buys 
little at a time but often. He works on the principle that 
he is serving the people in his community, and that “goods 
well bought are half sold.” 

The buyer’s qualifications. —In order that the buyer may 
successfully accomplish what has been set forth in the pre¬ 
ceding paragraphs, it is necessary that he should be fitted 
by training and personality for his work. In the first place, 
the professional buyer should be a salesman, one who fully 
understands the selling business. The requirements in 
strength of character are even higher than those of a sales¬ 
man, however, for he will be subjected to stronger and more 
insidious temptations. He will be invited to dine, to go to 
the theater, to smoke, to drink, to drive, to make a few 
dollars on the side, and he will be given presents. If he has 
a weak spot in his character, some salesmen will find it out, 
and thereafter his success as a buyer will be limited. As 
a trustee of his firm’s resources he must invest its funds in 
the best possible way, and no personal interests should come 
between him and his duty. He must be secretive, and while 
buying should say but little. His thoughts should be con¬ 
cealed, except when he wants them to show. Buying is a 
serious business, and whatever is purchased must be taken, 
not to please the salesman, but to please the hundreds of 
people constituting the buyer’s trade. The buyer invariably 
does best in the long run who accepts not a single personal 
favor of any kind from salesmen. Such a buyer will earn 
the hearty respect of all good salesmen, because absolutely 
square dealing always appeals to all good people. 

Buyer’s knowledge. —In addition to possessing an un¬ 
impeachable personal character, so far as honesty and 
squareness are concerned, the buyer needs to know his busi¬ 
ness. He needs to know the general market conditions, 
the factors affecting the market prices, and current tend¬ 
encies. He needs particularly to know the condition of his 


22Q 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


own house both as to stocks and finances. Before offering 
to buy he should know how much cash is directly available, 
what liabilities are falling due, what possible drains may 
occur, and what the prospects are for future resources in 
cash. In order to know the latter, he must have made es¬ 
timates of the monthly income of the business with proper 
allowances for inactive and dull months; and he should 
know when his community gets paid—that is, the time of 
pay days and the time when the community’s products are 
turned into cash. 

He knows from his study of the credit man’s reports what 
credits fall due and the probable percentage of slow and 
of uncollectible accounts. He knows before he goes to the 
wholesale dealers what credit standing and limits his house 
is likely to get; and he prepares in advance, with great care, 
the statements that will be required. When he confronts 
the wholesale credit man, he is ready to tell completely and 
without hesitation the facts that this official will want. 
In a large store it may be that several of these details 
are attended to and settled by the buyer’s superiors, but, in 
any case, his buying ability for the firm will be enhanced 
if he understands fully what the conditions are. In addi¬ 
tion to the financial facts, he is in touch, or in accord, with 
the policies of his store, so that its central plan or method 
will be served. 

Knowledge of the goods.— The buyer must know the 
goods. The salesman before him is, presumably, an expert. 
From him the buyer may learn much that is new concerning 
the goods, but it is important that he should be prepared 
to make his own judgments upon their suitability for his 
trade. Therefore he must know as fully as possible how 
the goods are produced or manufactured. This will help 
him to look for strong points as well as possible imperfec¬ 
tions. It will help him to know whether colors are fast* 
where goods are likely to wear out, and where they are 


230 


BUYING FOR A RETAIL STORE 


likely to be unsatisfactory. He must know something of the 
costs of production, including not only the raw materials, 
the labor, and the capital investment, but also the cost of 
the designing, coloring, etc. In summary, he needs to know 
the qualities of the goods he is buying, and he should know 
just about what they ought to cost, allowing a fair profit to 
the producers and wholesalers. 

How to get this knowledge. —This extensive knowledge 
of market conditions of his house and of his goods can be 
obtained only by careful, painstaking study and experience. 
The buyer is usually what may be called a graduate sales¬ 
man. He has served his apprenticeship back of the counter. 
He has diligently studied the wants of people, what they 
like, and how they like it. He has studied his firm—its lim¬ 
itations as well as its strong features. He knows what 
classes of trade its success depends upon. He has studied 
the market as an assistant buyer and as a reader of reli¬ 
able trade journals for years. Probably he has made special 
studies in schools or elsewhere in subjects affecting his lines, 
as for example, in mechanics, or in art, political economy, 
or commercial geography. 

What to buy. —The first step in determining what and 
how much to buy is to study the experience of the house. 
Here the buyer will learn what has sold well in the past, and 
what is therefore profitable to carry. This is not a certain 
indicator of future business, but it is commonly used, and, 
in most respects, is the safest indicator for most buyers to 
use. But if the buyer will add a careful survey of his trade 
to his knowledge of the past experience of the house, his 
chances for good buying will be increased. For example, 
every community has certain standards of style, whether it 
be in dress or in buggies. Broadly speaking, everyone has 
noted the differences in “eastern” and “western” styles; the 
terms “southern,” “city,” “Broadway,” etc., are applicable 
to large sections. 


231 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Every community also is likely to have its own peculiari¬ 
ties or tastes in style. In some places both men’s and wom¬ 
en’s fashions are set perhaps unconsciously, by a few of the 
so-called leaders of fashion. The colors and models selected 
by them are followed in a general way by a considerable 
number of others. A buyer needs to study what will best 
please these leaders; he will be quick to note the growing 
tendencies in their wants. 

He will know what periodicals are read in his community, 
and hence the kinds of advertisements that are constantly 
at work building up demand. He will aim to have these 
advertised goods, or others very nearly like them, ready for 
the demand when it begins to be felt. The number of mag¬ 
azine readers is increasing rapidly, and the advertising in 
these magazines is becoming more and more powerful. A 
retail merchant cannot afford to neglect this influence on 
popular demand. Most retail people would be surprised to 
learn the exact figures regarding the number of people in 
their town who are giving close attention to the advertising 
in the magazines. There is hardly a family in most towns 
that does not have some sort of magazine or periodical, and 
many families are subscribers to a number of magazines. 
Wherever a periodical goes in these days, there goes adver¬ 
tising, and its influence will be felt sooner or later. 

In determining what to buy, the buyer who has an inti¬ 
mate knowledge of the people for whom he is buying—that 
is, his customers—has a decided advantage. For example, 
if he knows what the income of the people of his community 
is, and their habits and ideas about its use, he has a good 
foundation upon which to base his belief as to what will 
sell well. If there are strong national or racial traits or 
habits among certain classes of his trade, he ought to know 
that. If the customers own their homes, it will make a 
difference in their buying in some lines as compared with 
what they would buy if they only rented. The kind of 


232 


BUYING FOR A RETAIL STORE 


homes the people live in is an especially important item 
of knowledge for the buyer—the size, the number of rooms, 
the methods of heating, means taken for sanitation and 
cleanliness, the usual kinds of ornaments, whether there is 
any desire to improve the homes or not, whether the wives 
do the work themselves or hire servants, whether the home¬ 
makers know anything about domestic science or not, 
whether much of the clothing and foods are prepared at 
home or purchased already prepared. It pays for a buyer 
to know personally as many people as possible, to know the 
interior of their homes, to know what ideals the people are 
struggling to live up to, and to know what will satisfy them 
best. 

How much to buy.—Buyers have not reduced their es¬ 
timates of demand to a scientific basis in most cases. The 
past experience of the store and the general knowledge 
that the buyer may have of his customers furnish the basis 
for what is but little more than a good guess. To avoid the 
evils that may come from bad guessing, the wise, practical 
buyer purchases at the beginning of the season only a part 
of the goods which he estimates he will actually need. As 
to varieties, he may follow such a rule-of-thumb as the 
following: “Spend two-thirds of your appropriation on 
staples, and one-third for new lines or novelties.” Such 
policies it would be well to follow in any case but there is, 
no doubt, much opportunity for still more scientific deter¬ 
mination of demand, difficult as the problem may appear 
at first sight. A scientific determination can be arrived at 
only by a deep study of economics and sociology. 

In the field of buying there is a possibility of applying 
some scientific principles that may prove of value. For 
example, the buyer guesses how much a community will 
spend for goods next season. There are, it is true, some 
uncertain elements in this problem even when considered 
from the standpoint of economics. But with the help of 


233 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


complete and correct census figures, it is possible to learn 
just how many people there are in a given community, their 
ages, sexes, occupations, whether married or not, and even 
their incomes. By a principle of economics known as 
Engel’s Law, it may be possible from one’s knowledge of 
the income of a class to determine very closely what amounts 
will be expended for food, for clothing, for rent, for fuel, 
for light, for health, for education, for church, for recre¬ 
ation, etc. 

The table following gives the results of an investigation 
made by the United States Bureau of Labor in 1891 and 
1903. Two thousand families’ annual expenditures were in¬ 
vestigated in 1891, and over eleven thousand in 1903. 
Although these statistics were compiled some years ago, 
there is no reason to suppose that there would be any great 
change in the results if similar statistics were compiled at 
present. 

EXPENDITURES OF AMERICAN FAMILIES INVESTIGATED BY THE 
UNITED STATES BUREAU OF LABOR 


Per Cent of Total Expenditures. 



Food 

Clothing 

Rent 

Fuel and 
light 

Miscella¬ 

neous 

1891 

1903 

1891 

1903 

1891 

1903 

1891 

1903 

1891 

1903 

Under $200. 

49-6 

50.9 

12.8 

8.7 

155 

16.9 

8.1 

8.0 

14.0 

IS-6 

$200 or under $300. 

44-3 

47-3 

14-3 

8.7 

14.7 

18.0 

7.6 

7-2 

19.2 

18.8 

$300 or under $400. 

45-6 

48.1 

14.1 

10.0 

iso 

18.7 

70 

7.1 

18.3 

16.1 

$400 or under $500 . 

45 -1 

46.9 

14.4 

11.4 

15.3 

18.6 

6.6 

6.7 

18.6 

16.5 

$500 or under $600. 

43-8 

46.2 

15.3 

12.0 

iS-2 

18.4 

6.6 

6.2 

19.1 

17.2 

$600 or under $700. 

41.2 

43-5 

159 

12.9 

15-5 

18.5 

59 

5.8 

21.6 

194 

$700 or under 800.. 

38.9 

41.4 

16.3 

135 

15.6 

18.1 

53 

53 

239 

21.6 

$800 or under $900. 

38.1 

41.4 

15.1 

136 

16.1 

17.1 

5-3 

SO 

25 - 5 

230 

$900 or under $1,000. 

34-3 

39-9 

16.8 

14.4 

14.9 

17.6 

4-7 

SO 

29.1 

23.2 

$1,000 or under $1,100. 

34-7 

38.8 

17.5 

15.1 

IS-1 

17.5 

4-5 

4-9 

28.1 

237 

$1,100 or under $1,200. 

30.7 

37-7 

16.5 

14.9 

12.2 

16.6 

39 

4-7 

36.7 

26.1 

$1,200 or over. 

28.6 

36.5 

15-7 

15.7 

12.6 

17.4 

30 

SO 

40.1 

25.4 

All. 

41.1 

43.1 

15.3 

130 

IS.I 

18.1 

5-9 

5-7 

22.7 

20.1 


From Ely’s Outlines of Economics, Revised Edition, page 119. 


Considering the items of expense in greater detail for the 
average American family, the 18th Annual Labor Report 


234 











































BUYING FOR A RETAIL STORE 


of the U. S. Bureau of Labor gives the following as the 
average: 

Fresh beef. $50.25 

Salt beef. 5.26 

Fresh hog products. 14.02 

Salt hog products. 13.89 

Vinegar and pickles. 4.12 

Other food. 20.40 

Other meat. 9.78 

Poultry. 9.49 

Fish. 8.01 

Eggs. 16.79 

Milk. 21.32 

Butter. 28.76 

Cheese. 2.62 

Lard. 9.35 

Tea. 5.30 

Coffee. 10.74 

Sugar. 15.76 

Molasses. 1.69 

Flour and meal. 16.76 

Bread. 12.44 

Rice. 2.05 

Potatoes. 12.93 

Other vegetables. 18.85 

Fruit. 16.52 

Rent. 99.53 

Principal and interest on mortgage. 12.15 

Taxes. 5.75 

Insurance. 20.98 

Fuel. 32.21 

Lighting. 8.15 

Clothing. 107.90 

Organization fees. 8.90 

Religious purposes. 7.60 

Charity. 2.39 

Furniture and utensils. 26.28 

Amusements and vacations. 12.30 

Books and newspapers. 8.38 

Intoxicating liquors. 12.45 

Tobacco. 10.91 

Sickness and death. 20.52 

Other purposes. 45.14 

Total for all purposes. $768.64 

2 35 












































RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


In similar investigations carried on in Germany, Engel 
found that the percentages expended on each class of goods 
were about the same as in this country. It should be noted 
that people expend just about the same percentage of their 
incomes, no matter what they receive, for clothing, fuel and 
light, and rent. The percentage for food diminishes as the 
income increases, while the percentage for miscellaneous 
items, such as minister to comfort and mental bodily recre- 
ation, increase with the increase in income. Assuming sta¬ 
ble industrial conditions, the merchant can be sure that these 
amounts will be expended either in his town or elsewhere. 
In other words, he may be sure that the community’s de¬ 
mands will be satisfied. 

Other problems of the buyer. —The buyer’s next prob¬ 
lem is the determination of the sources of supply of the 
goods the community demands. If there are several con¬ 
cerns supplying the same article or class of goods as his 
store supplies, what proportion of the trade can he draw? 
Past experience plus careful advertising and selling are 
the solutions to this problem. The quality of the goods that 
can be purchased by a class of people depends very largely 
upon their average income. 

The styles, colors, and shapes which will be in demand are 
to be determined from a study of the psychology of the 
people. The assortment as to sizes in most communities will 
follow another scientific principle known as the Law of 
Normal Distribution. Stated in simple terms, this law says 
that there is variation in everything, as, for example, in 
sizes; but that the great majority of sizes demanded will be 
close to the middle point, and from this middle point the 
demand will fall off gradually towards both extremes. To 
illustrate: Men’s shirts run in standard sizes from 14 to 17. 
The middle point is 15*^. A fair assortment of sizes in a 
single line of shirts would probably be as follows for most 
communities: 


236 


BUYING FOR A RETAIL STORE 


3 shirts size 14 
6 shirts, size 143/2 
12 shirts, size 15 
15 shirts, size 153/2 
12 shirts, size 16 
6 shirts, size 1 6y 2 
3 shirts, size 17 

The variation may be illustrated by a diagram. See Plate 
VIII. 

The numbers given in this table are intended only as an 
illustration of the principle. They represent the buying 
practice of one store for a regular $1.00 shirt, but might not 
be practical for another. The bell-shaped figure, however, 
shown in Plate VIII, is typical, and must be approximated 
in all purchases involving sizes, if left-overs of odd sizes 
are to be avoided. 



Normal. Distribution of Sizes, Illustrated. 

PLATE VIII. 


237 




















RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


Stock up-keep.—Upon the buyer rests the problems of 
stock up-keep. When surplus stock is kept in a stock room 
or elsewhere apart from the salesrooms, it should be placed 
in charge of one man who should be held responsible for the 
care of the goods. The stock-keeper should keep a careful 
record of everything that he has on hand, and this record 
should be so arranged as to show at a glance just what goods 
are in stock. Goods needed in the salesroom should be 
given out only on written orders which should be preserved 
as receipts. In some lines, especially in staple goods, this 
record will be sufficient to show what must be purchased 
and when. When any line is almost exhausted in the stock 
room, that is the signal to replenish. Such a plan would 
not be practicable for hundreds of kinds of goods sold at 
retail, however, for the store’s entire stock is often on the 
shelves, on the tables, or in the showcases. To guard against 
running out of stock the buyer and his assistants, the sales¬ 
men, should keep careful watch of their stock, and jot 
down on want slips, or in a want book, calls for goods not 
in stock, and notations concerning any supply running low. 
Standards need to be established as to what constitutes a 
proper amount to have on hand, and salesmen should be 
required to report promptly any falling below this amount. 
Successful stores aim to keep up their sorts but in as small 
quantities as possible, with the assurance of getting replen¬ 
ishments quickly. 

Slow moving goods.—No matter how good the buying, 
it is bound to be more or less imperfect, in that certain 
goods will move more slowly than others. Some articles 
will develop tendencies to become “stickers.” The buyer 
will supervise the arrangement of his stock so as to get the 
slow movers into as advantageous places as possible. The 
goods should, of course, be marked at the start at the price 
for which it is thought that they will sell. If this price 
does not move them, “mark downs” become necessary. It 

238 


BUYING FOR A RETAIL STORE 


is a good rule in the case of all merchandise of seasonable 
nature to clean up at any price at the end of the season. 
Some stores have adopted the policy of encouraging the sale 
of the unpopular goods by granting commissions to the 
salesmen upon such goods. These commissions are known 
variously as “PM’s,” “spiffs/’ and “premiums.” As a re¬ 
sult of the granting of commissions, some salesmen are 
sure to push these goods unduly for the sake of the com¬ 
mission. This will mean dissatisfied customers; hence this 
practice is not good business. It does not pay in the long 
run. The responsibility for bad buying should be shoul¬ 
dered by the buyer, or by the manager who placed limi¬ 
tations upon the buyer, causing him to buy the bad stuff; 
and the business rather than the customer should lose. A 
large part of the “mark downs” should always be attributed 
to inefficient buying. 

Treatment of traveling salesmen. —Periodically there is 
an outburst of traveling men’s views in the trade and busi¬ 
ness papers, maintaining that retailers do not accord trav¬ 
eling salesmen fair treatment. Judging from the illustra¬ 
tions frequently given, there is ground for these statements. 
There is much that the salesmen can do for the retailer who 
invites and appreciates help. The salesman can in some 
cases give valuable suggestions on selling plans and cam¬ 
paigns. He is often able to tell the retailer what the trade 
conditions are better than trade journals can, though in no 
case does he take their place. His reports to his house may be 
of service to the retailer when he wishes to establish or ex¬ 
tend credit relations. The retailer can afford to treat the 
salesman in a business-like way. Courtesy here as else¬ 
where pays. 

Pricing the goods. —When the goods are ordered, and 
when they are received and checked up with the order rec¬ 
ord or invoice, and found correct, the buyer should super¬ 
vise the pricing. As stated before, goods should be marked 


239 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


at prices at which they will sell; but unless the store can han¬ 
dle goods that will pay for themselves, for the expenses of 
running the business, and a profit besides, it will soon close 
its doors. Hence the pricing must be made in view of these 
expense and profit factors, as has been explained in a 
previous chapter. 


CHAPTER XVIII 
RETAIL ADVERTISING 

Kinds of retail advertising. —Advertising for a store in 
the larger sense includes everything that can be done 
to attract the attention of customers and help draw them 
to the store to see and to purchase the goods for sale there. 
In this sense, the very best form of advertisement is the 
satisfied customer. This individual, whoever he may be, 
feels right about his purchases, and, whenever the oppor¬ 
tunity occurs, he tells about how he feels or thinks regard¬ 
ing the store and its goods. No form of advertising can 
hope to build up business for long unless there are satis¬ 
fied customers. These come again and again, and bring 
in their relatives and friends, or throw out such suggestions 
as cause their relatives and friends to come too. 

Good will of the public towards a store is valuable adver¬ 
tising. A store with harmony within and with policies of 
fairness to the public wins large trade because of these 
facts. The fact that salesmen feel kindly towards their em¬ 
ployer is good advertising, as is also the fact that the em¬ 
ployer does everything he can for his employes, from pay¬ 
ing good wages to looking after their health, comfort, and en¬ 
joyment. 

Another form of store advertising is the character of the 
building itself—its front, its windows, its situation. These 
things are vastly important; they have been discussed else¬ 
where in the course. 


241 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


The display of goods in the window, the display of goods 
in the store, the arrangement of the store, the appropriate¬ 
ness of its fittings, its lighting, heating, and ventilation all 
have high value as advertising. 

The services of the salesman, the character of the dem¬ 
onstration, the attitude of the salesman, the character of 
the goods, the efficiency of the store system, and the de¬ 
livery system are other and most important items in the ad¬ 
vertising of a store. 

Usually, however, the term advertising is taken to mean 
only such publicity work as may be done outside of the 
store. This would include personal solicitation by salesmen 
outside of the store, but, as this is not a common practice 
in many lines, the word advertising is not ordinarily thought 
of as including outside solicitation. In its ordinary mean¬ 
ing advertising is publicity for the store obtained by means 
of printed matter. 

Aim of advertising. —The aim of printed retail advertis¬ 
ing is to assist in the sale of goods. Such advertising is a 
for of salesmanship, and its purpose is, therefore, to help in 
the sale of goods. Advertising may complete the entire sale 
in many cases, for the store may receive many orders by mail 
as a result of the advertising; or it may complete the sale up 
to the point of actual transfer of goods for the money, this 
last stage being completed by the salesmen. In the great 
majority of cases, however, retail advertising does very well 
if it attracts the attention of the public and arouses enough 
interest to bring a large number of people to the store. Here 
the salespeople must complete the work. It is evident, then, 
that advertising is entirely dependent upon the selling or¬ 
ganization ; and that there is need for closest harmony, co¬ 
operation, and knowledge of each other’s methods by both 
the selling and advertising departments, in order that there 
may be no waste efforts in either field. The advertiser 
should know just how salespeople show and sell goods so 


242 


RETAIL ADVERTISING 


that he may prepare the prospective customers for the kind 
of selling service the store offers; and the salesmen should 
know just what the advertiser is advertising and how he 
is doing it, so that they may meet the customer and carry 
on the sale from the point where the advertising left off. 

Store news. —In general, advertising helps a store to sell 
by attracting the attention of the people, by announcing 
the arrival of new goods, and by heralding special sales and 
changes in the store which will affect the business. Adver¬ 
tising that is good is really store news, and the advertising 
man may be compared to the reporter of a paper. He picks 
up all the news of the store that may be of interest to pos¬ 
sible customers, and then publishes this news in as attrac¬ 
tive a manner as possible. 

When to advertise. —Advertising, to be effective, must 
be kept up continuously. On the other hand, there should 
be no advertising that does not have something of interest 
to the people. The advertising man should have something 
to say. This means that when there is no news of any mo¬ 
ment occurring in the store, the advertising man must do 
as the city newspaper reporter does—go in search of it, 
or manufacture it. This can be done easily and legitimately 
in a store by starting a special sale, taking in a new line, 
closing out an old one, etc. The store that does not have 
things happening in it regularly is not in the current of 
modern merchandising. 

Advertising mediums.—There are a great number of 
kinds of printed advertising, and there are several ways in 
which this advertising matter may seek to gain the attention 
of the people. It is generally agreed that the most practical 
medium for retail stores doing their business in the regular 
trading sections of a city is the newspaper. Neighborhood 
stores and others that draw business from restricted areas 
or from special groups of customers will find that other 
mediums are more profitable. And even the store that has 


243 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


the best reason for using newspaper space, frequently finds 
it a good investment to supplement this by using circulars, 
handbills, letters, mailing cards, package slips, booklets, 
catalogs, and various forms of specialties such as calendars, 
blotting pads, toys, etc. Some of these have considerable 
value for any store. A few are considered absolutely es¬ 
sential by most progressive merchants, especially when cer¬ 
tain classes of trade are sought. 

Requisites for good advertising. —Let us examine the 
qualities of good newspaper advertising for a retail store. In 
the first place, the advertisement should be directed to 
real classes of people and not at random. The good adver¬ 
tiser talks right to the point and in ordinary salesman’s lan¬ 
guage to the prospective customer who reads his adver¬ 
tisement. What he has to say is clear, easy to understand, 
and brief. His style is cheerful, but entirely free from fool¬ 
ishness. The advertiser neither jokes nor “knocks.” He 
has an unclouded, unperturbed, optimistic mind. He is 
much interested in his own goods, and that interest he tries 
to convey to others. He uses superlatives but rarely, and 
when he does, they are likely to be effective. 

Tell the truth. —An advertisement must be true from top 
to bottom. The entire system of private merchandising 
is severely criticized for digressions from this rule, and 
advertising that is not true hurts not only the perpetrator 
but also all other advertisers reaching the same community. 
Nine-tenths of the buying public are women. It is charac¬ 
teristic of woman’s nature to be extremely sensitive about 
being misled. If a store advertises in any way that devi¬ 
ates from the truth, its dishonest advertisement is likely 
to be remembered a long time. If you want your advertise¬ 
ments read, they must be believable, and this means that 
they must be invariably true. There is a saying that some 
people are so erect that they lean backwards. In advertis¬ 
ing there needs to be erectness almost to this degree. Many 


244 


RETAIL ADVERTISING 


stores follow such a rule now and with profit. Their ad¬ 
vertising men are required to understate rather than over¬ 
state. Anything that looks extraordinary in the quality 
offered for the price or in price reductions, is scrutinized 
carefully before it is published for fear that it may not be 
believed by some one. 

Descriptions. —The descriptions of the goods should be 
made vivid, the purpose being to make them stand out 
clearly in the customer’s mind. No good advertising man 
makes use of “glittering generalities,” such as “best there 
is made,” or “best in the world.” In this respect the mail¬ 
order advertiser is a past master; retail salesmen, as well as 
retail store advertisers, can well spend much time in study 
of the methods and selling copy of the mail-order house. 
According to the nature of the goods, the advertiser will 
seek to arouse in the reader’s imagination an image of how 
the goods would really look, how they would feel, or how 
they would affect the other senses. He appeals not only to 
the imagination to get the correct impression, but he also 
seeks to excite the right kind of feeling to go with the im¬ 
pression. How to do this is the high art of advertising. The 
advertising man who can suggest pleasing feelings along 
with correct ideas about his goods to the minds of his read¬ 
ers is an artist just as much as the actor who excites us to 
laughter or to tears, the musician who moves to exaltation, 
or the painter who presents to the world a masterpiece that 
expresses life, movement, and nature. The salesman aims 
at exactly the same thing as the advertiser; but, owing to the 
limitations of the medium, the advertiser’s art is much more 
difficult. 

Heading. —Like the window display, the advertisement 
should be seasonable, appropriate, and have attention-com¬ 
pelling quality. To get the attention, aside from mechanical 
contrivances—rules, borders, white space, special type, etc.,:— 
the chief means is the heading. In a good advertisement, this 


245 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


furnishes in not more than four or five words the basic 
thought of the whole message. The heading should never 
be a blind misleading expression. It should catch the atten¬ 
tion of every possible user of the goods advertised. It is 
the most important part of any advertisement. It tries to 
reach out and meet people on the plane of their needs and 
their thinking. It states what they would state if they hap¬ 
pened to think about the matter. It is the connecting link 
between the store and the desires of the people. 

Illustrations.— If illustrations are used, they should be 
appropriate, clear, and attractive in themselves. An illus¬ 
tration is used when it illustrates or points out, better than 
words can express, the uses, qualities, or beauty of the goods 
that are for sale. Stock cuts and illustrative material fur¬ 
nished by bureaus must be scrutinized to see that they are 
really adapted to the retailer’s use. The location of illustra¬ 
tions with reference to the other parts of the advertisement, 
especially with reference to the reading matter to which 
the illustration refers, is important. The advertising man 
must seek to preserve the appearance of balance in the 
whole advertisement, but he must also see that the illustra¬ 
tions really illustrate some point in the reading matter. 

Prices.— Most literature on retail advertising insists that 
prices should be given, and the most successful modern 
stores in large cities do feature prices. Specific prices for 
specific articles seems to be the best rule. General expres¬ 
sions like “Coats from $10 to $50” are weak. When cut 
prices are advertised, both the original and the new price 
should be given in dollars and cents. Percentages and other 
ways of stating reductions mean little or nothing to a great 
number of people. 

Requisites of good form.— Experiments in advertising 
have shown that doubling the size of an advertisement more 
than doubles its attention—drawing power, other things 
being equal That is to say, a full page has more than twice 

246 


RETAIL ADVERTISING 


the attention value of a half page. It pays, therefore, to 
use as large space as can be profitably used in telling one’s 
business news. Large space gives opportunity to use me¬ 
chanical devices for getting attention, such as plenty of 
white space, contrasting set-up, illustrations, etc. Crowding 
of material is evident at first sight, and makes a bad im¬ 
pression. 

Location. —An advertiser may contract for his advertise¬ 
ment to appear in “preferred position,” or the contract may 
call for “run of paper.” “Preferred position” usually 
means a certain page, next to reading matter, and in read¬ 
ing columns; “run of paper” means that the advertisement 
is fitted into the forms wherever it can go most economically 
according to the notions of the printer. The former costs 
more than the latter. There is decided value in “preferred 
position,” however, that advertisers must consider. 

Emphasis. —Emphasis can be secured by contrasts of 
heavy black-faced type with light-faced type, also by means 
of the introduction of a different size or style of type. Only 
a very few kinds of type should appear in the same adver¬ 
tisement, and a continuous uniformity of type-faces is very 
desirable in a store’s advertising. People become accus¬ 
tomed to reading it easily, and the first step to favorable 
attention is taken thereby. 

Ornament.-— Decorations and ornaments in advertising 
are dangerous. They are likely to destroy the distinctness 
of the advertisement, making it harder to understand and to 
read. Ornament is likely to draw attention to itself and 
thereby destroy the business purpose of the advertisement. 
Some of the best advertisers confine the use of rules, bor¬ 
ders, and ornaments to the plainest lines, making them serve 
the eye of the reader in getting hold of the plan of the 
advertisement and helping to lead from one part of it to 
another. This is the legitimate function of such embellish¬ 
ments in retail advertising. Some advertisers that are 


247 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


known the world over do not use ornaments of any kind. 

Art in advertising. —There should, of course, be order, 
meaning, and balance between the parts of an advertise¬ 
ment and here, also, the rules of art apply fully as well as 
to store display. Careful advertising men preserve balance 
not only among the various forms composing the whole of 
the advertisement, but also between the shades of gray, 
resulting from the use of light and heavy type. To one 
who will shut out from his mind what a good advertisement 
says to him, the whole presents a symmetrical, well-balanced, 
beautiful picture of lights and shades, and of small and large 
groupings. This is the setting that the advertising man 
seeks to get for what lie has to say. This is what helps 
to give that good first impression to the reader which is so 
important. From this setting he contrives by choice and 
placing of words to make ideas “stand out,” as it were, so 
as to make them inviting and easy to grasp. 

Getting the information. —With no intention of present¬ 
ing directions for the advertisement writer, but rather to 
give to others who are not so engaged a general idea of how 
this work is done, we shall follow in outline the making of 
an advertisement in a large store from the time of its in¬ 
ception to the time when the results are all in. 

In the preparation of an advertisement for a certain day, 
the advertising man, who is usually called the “ad-man,” 
first confers with the heads of departments to see what 
goods they wish to advertise. Their offerings may be the 
results of over-buying, or may consist of “stickers” that are 
hard to sell, or they may be the latest additions of new stock. 
The buyer gives to the ad-man a statement concerning the 
qualities of the goods, and then names a price that he thinks 
will move them. In some large stores these reports from 
buyers are made to the ad-man in writing; the reports give 
the name of the goods, cost, regular selling price, price 
at which they are to be advertised, and remarks upon selling 

248 


RETAIL ADVERTISING 


points to be emphasized in the advertisement. These re¬ 
ports are then submitted to the merchandise manager, who, 
together with the ad-man, plans in a general way what 
shall receive most and what secondary attention in the ad¬ 
vertisement. The amount of space and possible location 
of the advertisement are also settled. 

Preparation of copy. —This done, the ad-man hurries to 
his office with his handful of data from the buyers, and his 
general plan in his head. The policy of the store and its 
plans for this particular day he is already supposed to know. 
With this general knowledge and plan he settles down and 
first works out a model sheet of the size the advertisement is 
to be, showing the location of the heading, the introduction, 
the name of the store, the descriptive matter of the offerings 
from each department, and the illustrations. This model 
outline is called the “layout.” Next, he studies his offerings, 
or the material describing them, sent to him by the buyers; 
and from this he writes descriptions. These descriptions, 
called “copy,” must be carefully written so as to express 
the right ideas, and must be of right length to fit the spaces 
or “boxes” assigned to each. Usually each description is 
written on a separate sheet and numbered to correspond with 
a number placed in one of the spaces ruled off in the 
“layout.” 

When the material is ready, the ad-man indicates in the 
margin of the layout the size of the space the advertisement 
is to occupy, the kind of border it should have, and other 
instructions for the printer; while on the sheets containing 
the descriptive matter he indicates the size and style of type 
in which he desires the article to be set up. The layout with 
attached copy and cuts or matrices for illustrations is then 
sent to the printer with directions to “set up, follow copy, 
and return proof for corrections.” In due course of time, a 
“proof sheet” returns, this being a first imprint taken of 
the advertisement as it appears set in type. Numerous er- 


249 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


rors may occur in the process of setting up. All of these 
must be noted and corrected; this is called “proof-reading.” 
After the corrections have been made, the “proof sheet” is 
returned to the printer with full instructions to correct and 
then to send a new imprint, called a “revise” for final 
“O. K.” 

When the “revise” arrives, it is again examined for any 
errors that might have been overlooked in the first proof¬ 
reading, and, if found correct, it is marked “O. K.” and 
signed by the ad-man, who returns it to the printer with 
directions to run off a sufficient number of proof sheets 
in advance to supply one for each department in the store, 
so that all salesmen may be prepared to co-operate with the 
advertisement. Card-writers are set at work preparing nec¬ 
essary cards for the day. The floorwalkers see that these 
are all properly placed and the goods displayed, and the 
salespeople prepare themselves by studying prices and other 
points regarding the goods advertised. 

The sale. —Then the advertisement appears in the news¬ 
paper. A half day later the business commences. Curious, 
interested, decided, and other classes of customers enter the 
doors. The cheerful floorwalkers meet them and direct them 
to the departments they seek frequently with wise introduc¬ 
tions to the salespeople, such as “Kindly show this lady 
some of your new dress silks,” or “This gentleman wishes 
to get a good, warm, serviceable coat,” etc.; and the sale 
begins. 

The results. —At the close of the day each department 
head, or the accounting department, figures up the sales and 
amount of money taken in. The reports from the various 
departments reach the manager in summary form next 
morning, and there, down in black and white, is the statement 
in dollars and cents of the success of the advertising. If 
the advertising was well done, and the conditions, such as 
weather, roads, crops, and industrial situation, were good. 


250 


RETAIL ADVERTISING 


it is likely that the results were satisfactory. If they were 
not satisfactory, there is more than an even chance that the 
ad-man may have some disagreeable moments with the man¬ 
ager. 

Store co-operation. —But in order that advertising should 
succeed, even if outside conditions are at their best, there 
must be perfect co-operation within the store. The salesmen 
must be ready to follow up the advertising in the department 
in which the goods advertised are located. The salesmen 
of other departments should also be informed of the sale 
so that they can direct the inquiring customers without hesi¬ 
tation to the right part of the store. There is another form 
of co-operation that is necessary: salesmen should utilize, so 
far as possible, the visit of the customer by trying to in¬ 
terest him in other goods besides the ones he asks for. The 
advertised goods may yield but small profit. The regular 
lines of goods must be relied upon to supply the profit for 
the day. Here is where personal salesmanship works as ad¬ 
vertising never can, for each individual customer must be 
treated in an individual way. If there are large crowds 
of insistent purchasers, it may be difficult to guide the cus¬ 
tomer before you to further purchases, but skillful sales¬ 
people train themselves in doing this very effectively. Under 
such circumstances the real salesman never loses his head. 
He uses the excitement of the crowd as a lever in selling 
more goods, but he always adheres to the principle that it is 
wise to sell to a person only such articles as he knows will 
satisfy the customer. He serves the patrons of the store 
always, but his service is selling goods. The salesman not 
only uses the advertising, therefore, but he carries it much 
further in effect than ink on paper possibly could. He aids 
the future advertising of the store. It is a well-known 
principle that satisfied customers are the best advertisement. 
The ones who will come back again and again for more 
goods and who will tell other people of their satisfaction 


251 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


are the retail store’s best assets. Advertising of that kind 
ranks ioo per cent., and it is the result of right salesmanship. 

The advertising profession. —Advertising is a profession 
which is rapidly growing and which offers splendid oppor¬ 
tunities for salesmen who have the ability to write good 
copy. For retail advertising, a training in selling behind the 
counter is almost absolutely essential. To this there must be 
added such education as to give the advertisement writer 
broad business views, literary and artistic skill, and broad 
knowledge of and sympathy with human nature. The tech¬ 
nical part of ad-writing may be learned by anyone with the 
proper inclination and ability. It is the general education 
that is most essential and that takes the longest time to ac¬ 
quire. The ad-man needs to be a student of affairs, of art, 
and of psychology. He should be alive to every social move¬ 
ment and change, quick to see and to judge. All successful 
ad-writers are great readers. All borrow ideas from 
everywhere—from history, art, literature, and from one 
another. Many of them own extensive libraries, the volumes 
of which are worn with constant reading. The typical ad¬ 
man is well-educated, well-read, practical, optimistic, sympa¬ 
thetic, open-minded, enthusiastic, and a keen judge of hu¬ 
man nature. Young men and women in the retail selling 
field, if of the right temperament, can with proper prepara¬ 
tion be successful in advertising. The necessary preparation 
is a matter of time and work. A very essential part of it is 
to be gained while studying the ins and outs of selling be¬ 
hind the counter. 


CHAPTER XIX 

RETAIL CREDITS AND COLLECTIONS 

Is retail credit necessary? —From the standpoint of so¬ 
cial welfare there is a question as to whether credit granting 
to consumers is a necessary and real service or not. Those 
who oppose the practice insist that there are so many dis¬ 
advantages and evils growing out of it in retail trade that 
everything possible should be done to change to a cash 
basis. 

There is reason for the granting of credit to the pro¬ 
ducers—the manufacturers and the wholesalers—for they 
do not destroy the value of the goods. They add to the 
value by one form of service or another. Hence their cred¬ 
itors can be repaid from the proceeds of the sale of the 
goods. 

Not so with the ultimate consumer. What he obtains, he 
uses, and that is the end of it. If he eats food, wears 
clothes, or runs a pleasure car on credit, he is eating, wear¬ 
ing, or using articles for which he has given no return. The 
payment is promised in the future; but in the meantime his 
consumption goes on; and his earnings are often behind his 
consumption. When hard times or bad luck comes, there 
is but one consequence. He simply cannot meet his obli¬ 
gations, and the retailer must shoulder the loss. 

In other words, the retailer is called upon to support cerv 
tain people—to supply them with the necessities of life to 
the amount of several dollars on every thousand dollars’ 


253 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


worth of business. This loss must be met directly by the 
retailer, but he in turn tries to pass it on to others. He 
cannot pass it on to the wholesalers unless he actually fails. 

Though it is not always possible, the logical place for 
seeking reimbursement is from the public. A merchant may 
compute that he will lose, we shall say, two cents on every 
dollar’s worth of goods sold on credit. He must simply add 
two cents to the selling price of every dollar’s worth so that 
this loss may be covered. Hence it will be seen that the 
people, particularly the classes who always pay their bills, 
are taxed by the stores for the payment of the bad debts. 
If cash selling prevailed, goods could be sold with equal 
profit to the merchant for as much less as the bad accounts 
now amount to, plus the additional office expense necessary 
to run a credit business in a store. 

Inevitable loss. —It may be added that it is practically 
impossible to do a credit business without some loss. Busi¬ 
ness conditions, crops, accidents, and other factors will 
cause these losses to vary from year to year. By expert 
credit management, losses can be materially reduced; but no 
one has a method of doing a credit business without any 
losses. 

Credit a cause of recklessness. —Credit is a cause of reck¬ 
lessness in business management both in the store and among 
its customers. The store finds it easy to sell its goods on 
credit, and sometimes plunges into questionable selling cam¬ 
paigns in the false hope of getting pay in the future. Cus¬ 
tomers are led to invest their money, often unwisely, when 
it should be used to pay for daily necessities. Credit tempts 
most customers to extravagance, and from this there is only 
a step to dishonesty and ruin. It is noteworthy that ex¬ 
perience with credit and collection systems makes moral 
weaklings callous to demands for just payments. Young 
people growing up in families where purchases are con¬ 
stantly made on a credit basis sometimes cannot or do not 


254 


RETAIL CREDITS AND COLLECTIONS 

learn the value of money, nor do they gain habits of thrift 
and saving. 

Arguments for retail credits. —These are the arguments 
against retail credit, but it must not be assumed that there 
are no arguments for it. On the contrary, the strongest 
arguments, according to many merchants, are those favor¬ 
ing credit business. In the first place, they say, people are 
accustomed to receiving credit. The merchant is not a 
social reformer. It is his business to serve the people in 
the way they want to be served. Many customers do not 
want to be troubled with making cash payments for every¬ 
thing they buy and at the time of buying. By not requiring 
immediate cash payments, considerable time is saved to the 
customer that would otherwise be wasted in counting out 
money and waiting for change. Many customers much pre¬ 
fer to have bills rendered once a month or so, so that they 
can make payments with checks or large bills. Some people 
find it easier to keep track of their expenses by following 
this method. 

Credit until pay day. —Again, there are great numbers of 
people who do not live beyond their means, but who receive 
their wages at the end of various periods of time, as for 
example, every two weeks 1 , or every month. These people 
have to wait for their pay. Why should not the merchant 
wait for his pay for goods sold to them? This is, undoubt¬ 
edly, one of the safest classes to trust, for, when they are 
working, they are storing up the value of their work which 
will become available on pay day. 

Credit business pays. —It may be argued that, at present, 
a credit store attracts trade. Credit giving is a policy that 
appeals to many people. Unfortunately, it appeals to un¬ 
desirables as well as those who are “good pay.” But it is 
a fact, nevertheless, that in many, if not most, communities 
a store doing a credit business will draw a much larger trade 
than one operating on a strictly cash basis. This increase 


255 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


in volume of trade, when credits are rightly handled, more 
than compensates for the time, trouble, and money loss at¬ 
tending the credit business. In some places, no other policy 
could succeed. If there is any tendency, however, in the 
matter, it seems to be in the direction of the increasing pop¬ 
ularity of a cash business. 

Credit makes good customers. —Finally, a credit business 
pays because it makes good customers. Those who buy for 
cash buy wherever they may be, and go from place to place 
in response to curiosity or attention aroused by the adver¬ 
tising of bargains. The credit customer usually gives his 
entire trade in a given line to one store. If he does not, a 
little pressure properly applied can often induce him to 
do so. 

Substitutes for credit. —As substitutes for the credit sys¬ 
tem, aimed at changing the habits of trading of a community, 
some stores offer a discount ranging from two to five cents 
on the dollar for cash. This encourages cash payment effec¬ 
tively in some lines, but has had but little effect in others. 
Another common device, partly successful, is the sale of trade 
coupons for cash—the giving of $10.50 value in coupons 
for $10.00 in cash, or $2.50 in premiums for $100 worth 
of cash trading stamps. This discount is effective in draw¬ 
ing the cash trade of certain classes, but usually these are 
the classes that always pay anyway. It seems to take more 
than this to bring out cash in advance from bad risks. 
Some large stores have established store banks for the use 
of their customers, and these institutions are said to be very 
successful. Customers make their purchases, and the 
amounts are subtracted from their total deposits, and inter¬ 
est at four per cent, is paid upon daily balances. 

Practical necessity for credit. —Whatever the theory of 
retail credits, the fact remains that as conditions now are, 
many successful businesses will continue to be founded on 
the credit granting policy. It is perfectly clear that credit 

256 


RETAIL CREDITS AND COLLECTIONS 


granting is still considered a proper function for the majority 
of retail stores, and, that being the case, it remains for the 
retail merchant to study the problems and methods of credit 
giving in a thorough manner. 

Essentials of successful credit business. —Success in a 
credit business depends upon a careful study of local busi¬ 
ness conditions, careful selection of risks, thorough examina¬ 
tion of credit information, constant supervision of accounts, 
prompt collecton service, and ingenuity in laying plans for 
the collection of recognized bad accounts. This demands 
that the credits of a business must be presided over by one 
of the ablest men in the store, and, if the business is large, 
his whole time needs to be given to the work. He should 
be, in fact, a specialist, a credit man. His office should be 
close to the bookkeeping department, and all purposes are 
best served by having the bookkeepers under his direction 
and supervision. He should also have complete charge of 
the collecting of accounts, since “getting the money” is the 
logical and desired end of the store’s credit activities. In 
stores where the credits and other office work do not take 
up the entire time of a good man, it is probably best to 
have what work there is of this nature delegated to one man. 
Its importance is such that some responsible member of the 
concern should be in charge. To give the work to one man 
and to hold him responsible is by all means the best plan. 
Bad credit risks are a rock upon which a large proportion 
of retail concerns are wrecked. Live responsibility is what 
is needed to keep the business from getting too near the 
danger line. 

Relation of business conditions to credit granting.— 

The business conditions of a community determine in a gen¬ 
eral way the prospects of safety in granting credit. A com¬ 
munity may be on the up-grade, down-grade, or stand¬ 
ing still commercially and financially. To grant exten¬ 
sive credits in a down-grade period in any community is to 


257 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


court failure. Crops are always important factors in every 
business, but more especially in a community in which agri¬ 
culture is the immediate and greatest industry. Good crop 
prospects are sufficient reasons for liberal credit policies, 
whereas bad crops mean decreased means of meeting debts. 
In prosperous communities, however, it may be possible for 
most of the best farmers to tide over a period of years quite 
successfully. 

The condition of a community’s resources, whether plenti¬ 
ful or near exhaustion, is also an important point worthy of 
investigation. A community facing sudden change or in¬ 
dustrial depression offers bad prospects for receiving prompt 
returns on credit extended. Many a town has found itself 
stranded for a time, at least, by the exhaustion of its natu¬ 
ral resources, the failure of one of its principal industries, 
or slackening in the demand for the product of the main 
industry. All of these things tend to make it difficult to pay 
debts. Periods of general industrial depression are always 
productive of difficulty in making collections. 

In addition to uncovering such industrial facts as have 
been already referred to, a study of a community also will be 
valuable in order to determine the character of the people 
themselves with respect to their honesty and willingness to 
pay. “Dead beats” have a bad psychological effect on their 
neighbors, unless promptly checked in their activities. If 
one, or several, can run accounts and then never pay them, 
others reach the conclusion that the scheme is worth trying. 
But most people will pay if they can. It rests with a wise 
merchant to prevent them from making purchases that they 
cannot pay for, not only for his good, but also for their 
good as well. 

Classes that may receive credit. —In general there are 
certain lines which a credit man may draw between those 
to whom credit should be granted and those who should not 
receive this service. In the first place, people with means, 

258 


RETAIL CREDITS AND COLLECTIONS 


but whose means are not immediately available, may gen¬ 
erally be trusted. The farmer who is waiting for his crop 
to ripen or for better market conditions; the lumberman 
who is waiting for the spring thaw to move his logs; the 
ice-dealer who waits for hot weather to bring him a mar¬ 
ket; the contractor who is completing a job for which he 
will be paid at its close; the manufacturer whose product 
requires much time and capital expense before it is ready 
for the market—these are classes that often need and may 
safely receive credit under average conditions. To these 
may be added the great class of salaried or wage-earning 
workers who have pay days two weeks or a month apart. 
Credit up to a certain limit and for the time extending to 
the next pay day is usually considered safe, especially if 
the worker is the head of a family, and better still if he is a 
home owner. 

Who should not receive credit. —On the other hand, peo¬ 
ple of extravagant habits, those who are incompetent or 
idle, intemperate, or unable to attend to their businesses, 
and those who tend to live beyond their means should not 
receive credit. Men without families, minors, married 
women who are not legally responsible for their obligations, 
strangers without a record, speculators, and gamblers are 
usually considered bad risks by conservative and successful 
business men. Credit should not be granted to people in ill 
health when death is likely to occur, and when death, if it 
should occur, would mean loss. Nor should people past 
fifty years of age who have made no savings or have no 
habits of thrift or accumulation, or those who live from 
hand to mouth receive commercial credit. Lest this may 
seem a cold-blooded analysis, it should be said that the 
community owes to both the infirm and to the old, insur¬ 
ance against privation. But this burden should not fall on 
the retail merchant alone. A merchant should be charitable; 
he can afford to be. But charity is not business. When goods 


259 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


are given to unfortunate people, and the hope of payment 
is slight, the goods should be charged to charity and not 
to business. 

The credit man’s problems. —Having these general prin¬ 
ciples in mind, the credit man is called upon to make ap¬ 
plications of the principles to the hundreds of specific cases 
that come up. As a first consideration, he must decide which 
the firm can least afford to lose, the value of the goods if the 
debtor never pays, or the customer’s trade if he should hap¬ 
pen to be entirely safe. If the dealer refuses the credit, 
it is entirely likely that the customer will transfer his trade 
elsewhere. The store wants to hold all trade that is good, 
and increase its volume if possible. It may prove profitable 
for a store to be liberal in granting credit even if this pol¬ 
icy results in losing a few more debts than usual. The 
increased volume in business may more than cover the losses. 
This, then, is the policy of many credit granting stores; to 
grant credit rather freely, to anticipate a certain percentage 
of loss, and then maintain an effective collection department 
for the purpose of keeping the losses below the anticipated 
percentage mark. 

How bad debts arise. —Credit men generally work on 
the principle that it is usually safe to trust a customer at 
least once if he belongs to one of the approved classes. 
Trouble may arise, however, after credit has been granted 
once. The customer comes in and asks for credit “until 
Saturday,” “until the first of the month,” or “until I have 
sold my wheat.” The date of payment is indefinite; col¬ 
lections are not promptly demanded. Probably partial pay¬ 
ments enter into the account, and then the credit risk be¬ 
gins to slide along. After various lengths of time, the 
debtor has some bad luck, such as illness or lack of work, 
and the merchant is left in a hole; he cannot get his money, 
and if he complains at any time, the customer may leave 
him for good. Finally, loss must be acknowledged. 


260 


RETAIL CREDITS AND COLLECTIONS 


The work of the credit man. —To avoid cases of this 
kind, the credit man gets complete information about the 
customer from the customer himself and from others. He 
induces the customer to fix a definite date of payment. He 
finds out on what day the customer expects income; and 
bills or statements are promptly rendered at that time. For 
most retail businesses dealing in the necessities of life— 
food and clothes—especially in cities, thirty days should be 
about the limit of credit. In some places the credit limit 
is two weeks, and in others only a week. The credit man 
also fixes a credit limit for each customer, beyond which the 
salesman cannot sell without proper authorization. 

If a bill does not bring prompt response, there follows a 
vigorous campaign of letters. Failing in getting returns 
by these methods, these letters are followed up by a per¬ 
sonal call from a collector for the store. 

At this point the credit man and his assistant collectors 
begin to use all sorts of ingenious devices to keep from 
losing the amount. If the cash is not obtainable, some deal 
or trade is proposed whereby the customer can make a quick 
settlement. As a last resort, the account goes into the hands 
of a collection attorney. Up to this point the store uses 
every tactful means; but when the attorney attacks the job, 
it means war. No further trade is expected—or wanted— 
from the customer. The debt must be collected by force if 
possible. 

Method of handling the credit customer. —The methods 
of a credit man in dealing with an applicant for credit can 
be made clear by illustration. A customer purchases some 
articles from a salesman and asks to have it charged. 

Salesman: “Have you a charge account with us?” 

Customer: “No.” 

Salesman: “Wait just a minute to meet our credit man, 
please,” or “Please come to the office with me and arrange 
the details.” 


261 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


The customer must be handled very carefully. Most 
women know little about the requirements and necessities 
of the business world. A rough, brusque procedure in get¬ 
ting credit information might incense a woman to such an 
extent that she would go to another store. She must be 
kept entirely at ease, and yet the information must be ob¬ 
tained. 

Getting credit information from customer. —When the 
credit man meets the customer, he learns as much about 
her as possible without arousing antagonism on her part. 
What he is after, and what he usually gets from a customer 
who shows no hesitancy in replying, can be made most 
clear by a study of a card or other blank form such as he 
may fill out for his own information. A card form of this 
sort is as follows. 


Name. 

Married or single. 

Address . 

Former address. 

Occupation. 

Where employed. 

Address of employer. 

or 

Business address. 

Husband’s business address .. 
Where statement is to be sent 
Date .. 


Verification. —After the credit man has the information 
he wants from the customer, and after he has had an 
opportunity to pass judgment based upon appearances, he 
may still want further information or verification. He con- 


262 














RETAIL CREDITS AND COLLECTIONS 


suits the directory, Dun’s or Bradstreet’s commercial re¬ 
ports if the prospective customer is in business, and pos¬ 
sibly other sources. This takes but a moment of time in 
well regulated offices. At its close, if the investigation 
shows that the risk may be undertaken, he returns to the 
customer with a tactful remark, such as “It is all right. We 
know you and are glad to have your account.” If, on the 
other hand, the investigation results unfavorably, he refuses 
the credit in a courteous manner, and probably shows him¬ 
self sympathetic, but blames the rules of the house for his 
inability to be of service. 

Thorough investigation. —After this preliminary investi¬ 
gation is made, there may be more to follow. The credit 
man learns essential facts about the customer’s family con¬ 
nections. For, no matter how hard the circumstances may 
be that surround a family, if there is a characteristic pride 
in square dealing handed down from the preceding genera¬ 
tion, it is almost certain that any obligation will be faith¬ 
fully kept to the letter. From the customer’s employer, the 
credit man may learn particulars concerning the wages, 
steadiness, and reliability of the customer, or of the bread¬ 
winner of the family. From the assessor’s office he may 
learn whether the customer owns or rents the home lived 
in; and, if he rents, who the landlord is. From the land¬ 
lord the credit man finds out if the rent is usually paid 
on time. Friendly merchants can tell him what experiences 
they have had with the customer, if any. Local credit asso¬ 
ciations can be of very effective service as a means of verifi¬ 
cation of facts otherwise determined, or as a guide to special 
investigations. 

What the credit man should know about his risks.— 

When the credit man is through with his investigation con¬ 
cerning a debtor, he knows not only the facts shown on the 
card, but also the salary received, reputation for paying, 
personal habits, steadiness in holding position, what rent is 

263 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


paid, or whether home is all paid for, and all about any 
sources of income other than regular salary or wage for the 
city dweller. For his country customers, he learns what 
property the debtor owns, what incumbrances there are on 
the property, the customer’s character, his methods of mar¬ 
keting his crops, the condition of his farm, his care of 
implements, the condition of his live stock, and his special¬ 
ties in farming. 

Credit records. —This information is often carried in the 
mind of the small town merchant; but lapses of memory 
are so common that the written record that the professional 
credit man employs is preferable for all but the smallest 
businesses. The credit man’s records are kept strictly pri¬ 
vate. Surely the customer should never know the detailed 
opinion of his reliability that the credit man holds. After 
the records are complete, even if all looks well, safety in a 
credit business can be assured only by eternal vigilance and 
thorough watchfulness of general business tendencies, 
changes in the prospects of each debtor, and careful super¬ 
vision of the ledger accounts. Any slowness or failure 
to meet obligations at the appointed time should be noted at 
once. Any system established in the bookkeeping depart¬ 
ment must aim at efficiency in this regard. Even under the 
best conditions a good credit man with a good system can 
hope only to keep the percentage of total losses below a cer¬ 
tain point; he cannot eliminate them entirely. 

Relation of credit to prosperity. —Granting retail cred¬ 
its is a matter of vital importance to the whole country. 
For example, it can be shown that retail credits had some 
share in causing the financial crises of 1837, 1857, 1873, and 
possibly 1893. Laxness in credits leads to trouble, not only 
for the retailer, but also for the wholesaler, manufacturer, 
banker, and, consequently, for the public in general. A 
business granting credit should carefully estimate what 
amount it can safely grant in total, and beyond which it 

264 


RETAIL CREDITS AND COLLECTIONS 


should not go. A house doing a credit business needs to 
estimate carefully what effects its credit granting will have 
on its cash business, and the tendencies to gravitate either 
in one direction or the other. The proportion of cash to 
credit sales needs to be carefully watched. Finally, in accord 
with our theory of retail selling and consumption, it would 
seem best that every step possible should be taken toward 
establishing cash buying as a habit of the public. Many 
a house finds its credits leaping ahead of its cash sales be¬ 
cause of failure to do this. Salespeople can help by sug¬ 
gesting the cash payment rather than saying at the close 
of the saie, “Shall we charge this ?” 


CHAPTER XX 


RELATION OF THE STORE TO ITS SALESPEOPLE 
AND TO THE PUBLIC 

Relation to employes. —In a previous chapter we have 
discussed the relation of the employe to his employer, it 
was pointed out that when a salesman is engaged by 
a store, the store has a right to expect certain services and 
a certain attitude of good-will towards the business as well 
as a given number of hours during which the regular work 
is to be performed. The merchant has a right to demand 
these things of the salesman. But there is another side to 
the contract. The merchant owes salespeople not merely 
the wages or salary which he has agreed to pay, but also 
favorable conditions under which the work is to be per¬ 
formed. Salespeople are not machines, and cannot be treated 
as such. They need the human interest of the employer, 
and, therefore, it is a part of his duty to look after their 
welfare and to provide them with steady work so far 
as possible, to make regular promotions whenever they are 
deserved, and to insure to the employe who has worked 
faithfully for him for many years that he will not be in¬ 
considerately cast off in his old age. This policy, it is com¬ 
ing to be seen, will pay in the long run. 

Minimum salary. —The minimum salary that any eco¬ 
nomic employment should pay should not be less than 
enough to buy the simple necessities of life for the person 
receiving it. Competition among wage earners for places 
makes it unnecessary in many cases in retail stores for the 


266 


STORE, SALESPEOPLE AND PUBLIC 


employer to pay this much; the competition among employ¬ 
ers forces each to take advantage of the necessities of the 
laborer. It is difficult to see how these circumstances can 
be remedied, but so far as the individual business is con¬ 
cerned, it would seem a profitable policy, as a matter of 
good advertising if for no other reason, to employ no people 
at wages below the living standard. 

Child workers. —The age of the worker as well as his ex¬ 
perience, education, and native ability count for much in 
determining what salary shall be paid, but it does not appear 
that any permanent good can come from employing any 
person under the age of sixteen years in retail stores. 
Since the days when store apprenticeships were common, 
young people have not been able to learn much from per¬ 
forming the tasks that can now be given to those under 
sixteen; hence, one cannot say that there is any educational 
value for the boy or girl in serving in a store before this 
age, and many good business men agree that in most cir¬ 
cumstances, it is more profitable to employ older people, all 
things considered, than young children. Neither the child 
laborers nor the employer of child labor receives permanent 
benefit from the employment of children. 

What should determine salary? —The amount of salary 
that a salesman should receive should depend upon his earn¬ 
ing ability, his total sales, or his total profits for the firm. 
In most businesses, the salaries are understood to be a cer¬ 
tain percentage of the total sales and range anywhere from 
three to ten per cent, or even higher. In general merchan¬ 
dise, drygoods, or grocery stores, the average lies some¬ 
where between four and seven per cent, of the total sales. 
If we were to assume that the salaries should equal four 
per cent, of the sales, then a salesman who sold $250 worth 
of goods in a week would be entitled to four per cent, of 
that amount, or $10. If the sales were greater than $250 
per week, then the salesman would be earning more 

267 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


money for the house and would be entitled to a higher 
wage. 

An ideal way to pay for selling services would be upon 
a commission basis. In this case each salesman would get 
an income exactly corresponding to his efforts; but in a 
store where there are several salespeople and several depart¬ 
ments to be considered, it has been found impracticable in 
most cases to pay salespeople upon a commission plan, be¬ 
cause when this is done there is likely to be lack of harmony 
among the departments, instead of the co-operative working 
together which the store should encourage. When it is not 
possible to pay on the commission basis, a straight salary 
is the alternative most generally considered. 

But a straight salary does not bring out the best ability 
of the salespeople. The salesman may understand that his 
salary is dependent upon his earning power in the long run, 
and yet he may neglect to improve his opportunities because 
the weekly or monthly amount payable to him seems so se¬ 
cure. As a result, many do not get into the habit of doing 
their best even for themselves, and both the salesman and 
the house lose that efficiency that the salesman is capable of 
developing. Some form of premium for good work should 
be offered to the salesman, and the offer should be made in 
such a way that there can be no misunderstanding or un¬ 
certainty about its being paid to all those who make good 
and not to those who fail. The form of this premium may 
be a cash bonus on all sales above a certain amount, a pay¬ 
ment for valuable suggestions, or a bonus for excellent team 
work or co-operation with the store. 

Premiums. —In some stores there is a custom of allowing 
salesmen premiums for selling any stock which seems to 
have developed “sticking qualities.” Such premiums have 
been known for a long time as “spiffs” or “P. M’s.” The 
effect of such a premium is that the salesman gives special 
attention to pushing the lines in which the premiums are 


268 


STORE, SALESPEOPLE AND PUBLIC 


offered and the goods are sold quickly as has been suggested. 
However, the advantages of paying premiums are question¬ 
able. The salesman gives an unnecessarily large amount of 
attention to selling the special stock, neglecting to make sales 
among the goods that may pay the highest profits to the 
house. In the second place, salesmen are sometimes likely 
to push special, “spiffed” goods when the customers might 
be better satisfied with other lines of goods; the house may 
lose some of its trade by reason of this practice. 

In recent discussions upon the matter of premium giv¬ 
ing, there has been a strong tendency tc emphasize the nec¬ 
essity of giving premiums for efficiency in making sales in 
all lines, whether the most popular goods or not, and that 
the premium should be based on special effort, ability, or 
results. The premium should be paid to the man who does 
more than the common everyday duties which every sales¬ 
man must perform if he is to keep his position. The house 
must have complete the co-operaticn and good-will of its em¬ 
ployes. The remuneration that is paid to the salesman is, 
after all, the chief means of getting this good-will. The 
payment of premiums of some kind adds to the interest or 
zest of the salesman. 

Profit-sharing. —There are other methods besides premi¬ 
ums by which the co-operation of every employe may be 
obtained for the business. Profit-sharing in one form or 
another is common and effective, if properly carried out. If 
the employe knows that his income is to a certain extent 
dependent upon the success of the business, the average per¬ 
son will help to make that business more successful. There 
are some who, even under this stimulus, do not respond, be¬ 
cause immediate desires or pleasures seem much more im¬ 
portant to them than a return some months hence. Profit- 
sharing is most effective as a means of getting co-operation 
among employes who own homes and desire to make the best 
use of their position for themselves and their families. 

269 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


It is least effective among those employes who work only for 
a season in a store and who do not know whether they 
care to continue in that line of work or in some other. 
Profit-sharing is generally most effective in the business 
in which there is a division of the profits frequently, say 
every six months rather than every year. It is easier to 
look ahead for this shorter period of time than for a 
whole year. 

There are dozens of different plans of profit-sharing, but 
perhaps the most usual is that in which the firm distributes 
all of its net earnings in excess of a fair return for the 
capital invested and for the hazards of the business. Some¬ 
times this distribution is based upon the time of the services 
of the employe; that is, an employe who has been at work 
for the firm for a long time gets a larger share of the profits 
than one who has been employed only a short time. In fact, 
it is customary for no profits to be paid to an employe who 
has not been connected with the firm at least one year. In 
other cases the profits are distributed on the basis of the 
amount of salary received by the employes, the higher sal¬ 
aried ones getting a higher percentage of profit, and the 
lower salaried ones a smaller percentage. In still other 
stores, both of these plans are combined so that those who 
have been in service a long time and who are receiving the 
higher salaries get the larger parts of the profits to be 
distributed. 

Special forms of profit-sharing. —There are some forms 
of profit-sharing which do not go by that name, but which 
are effective in getting the employes’ co-operation. Among 
them is the offering of the company’s stock so that any em¬ 
ploye may have the opportunity of becoming a stockholder 
in the business. When he begins to feel that he is a pari 
of the business, he will do his level best to make the business 
successful. 

Christmas gifts, Thanksgiving turkeys, and presents 
270 


STORE, SALESPEOPLE AND PUBLIC 


other times are other means of getting co-operation. The 
managers show their appreciation of the efforts of the sales¬ 
men by these tokens, and the salesmen become keen in the 
desire to outdo their former records and merit further con¬ 
sideration. Such presents are, in many cases, valuable in 
that they cement the feeling of interest between employer 
and employes and show to the latter that the employer is 
interested in their welfare. 

There are dangers in present giving, however, and one of 
these is that the practice may be looked upon as a habit, and 
the Thanksgiving turkey considered a part of the regular 
salary. Wherever this danger exists, it would be better for 
the practice to be dropped, and for any funds expended for 
such presents to be added to the salaries of the employes in 
the proportion that they deserve. 

Selling goods to salesmen —Another way in which sales¬ 
men receive remuneration indirectly from the stores in which 
they are employed is the privilege of purchasing goods at 
lower figures than are offered to the public. Most stores 
grant a discount to salespeople, ranging commonly from five 
to ten per cent, off from the selling price. This discount is 
usually accorded to the salesman only for the purpose of 
supplying his own needs. Purchases for his family or 
friends are to be made at the usual store prices. As a gen¬ 
eral rule, salespeople are supposed to do their buying in 
the store only at certain hours during the day. It is also 
generally best to have some other salesman wait on the clerk 
instead of having him wait on himself. This means a square 
deal to all concerned. 

In some stores, clerks are allowed to purchase goods at 
cost to the store, including the price paid for the goods, the 
freight, the expense of marking, etc., and the placing of the 
goods on the shelves. In many grocery stores there are no 
discounts allowed whatsoever. In stores where salespeople 
are required to wear uniforms, and where material for the 


271 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


uniforms is on sale, the salespeople are usually given any¬ 
where from ten to twenty per cent, off on this class of 
goods. 

Discounts, gifts, tokens, etc., may be considered by the 
management as part of the selling expense wherever they are 
given. Hence it is only a question of whether a store finds 
it more convenient to pay the salespeople in direct salary 
what they think is due them and what will bring the best 
results, or to pay a smaller salary and add thereto these 
special returns in various indirect forms. 

Security of employment. —Security of employment is an¬ 
other thing that directly affects the quality of the services 
that salesmen give to the store. If a person knows that his 
position is reasonably secure and that he need not worry 
about finding another job, he is more efficient because he 
can give his complete thoughts to the business of selling. 
It is well known that the seasonal occupations that employ 
people for only short periods of time, have a lower labor 
efficiency than any other kind of work. It is not to be ex¬ 
pected that a different result can be obtained from salesmen 
who would like to do their best but who do not know 
whether they will have their present positions next month 
or not. 

Promotions. —Promotions when made from the ranks 
within the store help create a strong sentiment of good-will 
among salespeople in most cases. It is sometimes felt neces¬ 
sary to bring in “new blood” from time to time in the higher 
positions; but wherever possible promotions should be made 
from the ranks. “Of what use is it;” so most salesmen think, 
“to give extra effort and service to the store if that effort 
will not be recognized and if some outsider is brought in 
to take the position up above?” 

Value of departmentizing. —Every store where there are 
several employes would find it profitable to departmentize, if 
for no other reason than to give definite work and responsi- 


272 


STORE, SALESPEOPLE AND PUBLIC 


bilities to the various work people. In a general store in 
which the manager is the only recognized managing official, 
it is difficult for the average salesman to see that he is 
making any forward progress as the years pass by. But in 
a departmentized store where the salesmen may climb from 
a selling position into that of an assistant buyer or a buyer, 
or any other position of responsibility within the store or¬ 
ganization, there is an incentive to improve constantly. One 
may think that labels and names do not amount to much, 
but, after all, most of us take pleasure in one form of dis¬ 
tinction or another and the distinction of holding an official 
position of definite responsibility in a retail store, even 
though it be a small one, is well worth having. 

Every manager should have an under-study. —One plan 
that a store can well afford to carry out is to provide a sys¬ 
tem of under-studies for every important position in the 
management. There are three reasons for this. In the first 
place, the work of the manager in charge of any department 
is made easier because of the help that he derives from his 
under-study. Secondly, the under-study system provides a 
definite line along which an employe can plan to progress, 
and, when a person begins to plan for the future in this way, 
it means that he is taking a deep interest in his work. This 
is one of the most desirable features of the under-study sys¬ 
tem. Thirdly, the under-study learns to do the work of his 
chief and, therefore, if, for any reason, the latter should be 
absent or should leave for some other position, the store 
would not be handicapped in getting a new man to take his 
place. New men from outside of the business must, of 
necessity, consume time in learning any store’s system. This 
time expenditure is a loss to the firm. There should, there¬ 
fore, be under-studies for the various buying positions, for 
the accounting and credit departments, and for all other im¬ 
portant official places in the store. 

Salesmen’s suggestions. —There is one other method of 


273 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


getting the co-operation of the employes in a store, and that 
is by conducting some sort of system that will encourage 
salesmen to make suggestions upon any point which will be 
of benefit to the business. Not only is the store benefited 
by the closer co-operation of the salespeople by this plan, 
but many good ideas may be obtained and utilized, which 
will mean an increase in the profits of the business. 

Welfare work.— An employer needs to be interested in 
the welfare of his employes, not only during the hours of 
work, but at all other times as well. How this interest 
shall be shown is a problem, for unless the matter is handled 
in a wise and diplomatic manner, all steps in a welfare direc¬ 
tion may be misunderstood by the salespeople. Many mer¬ 
chants have helped their salesmen by taking steps to pro¬ 
vide the means for them to enjoy themselves during hours 
out of service. A few large stores have summer camps 
where the employes may spend their vacations. Some stores 
encourage athletics among both men and women during 
spare times. Annual picnics are a big feature in many 
stores. Other forms of welfare work are valuable, as, for 
example, the establishment of savings and loan associations, 
of sick, accident, and death benefits, etc. 

There are a number of things which every merchant can 
do for his people which will help them during the hours 
when they are in his business place. He can and should 
provide them with as easy conditions for work as possible, 
such as proper ventilation, heat, and lighting. It has been 
found by careful experiment that salespeople can make more 
sales in a store that is well ventilated, other conditions being 
about the same, than in one poorly ventilated, and with less 
effort, too. The same is true of heating and lighting. It 
has been found that chairs behind the counters are not an 
inconvenience or temptation to indolence; for a moment’s 
rest while sitting down, enables the salesman to double his 
energy in the next sale, and, therefore selling efficiency is 


274 


STORE, SALESPEOPLE AND PUBLIC 


increased. Some stores have set aside and equipped some 
room to be used as a rest room for any employe who does 
not feel entirely well. In stores where a number of the 
employes bring their lunches, a comfortable lunch room 
can often be set aside for the use of those needing it, 
while in some large stores lunches are prepared and sold 
to the employes at low cost. Large stores can go much 
further in this welfare work, as it is called, than small 
stores; but even in a small store, the management can 
watch the details of the work of the store and its effect 
upon the salespeople carefully, and improve anything that 
does not seem to work well. Everything that makes the 
salespeople more truly healthy, clear-minded, and happy, 
helps to make them better salespeople, and some large cor¬ 
porations have adopted welfare work solely for the profit 
that they expect to derive therefrom. 

Hours of labor. —The hours of labor in a retail store 
are sometimes too long, although the tendency has been 
to cut them down. It is not long since most stores kept 
open every evening in many parts of the country. From 
that, the stores progressed to a point where they kept open 
only two evenings a week; and, now, in the majority of 
larger places, Saturday evening is the only night open in the 
retail trade. This tendency is in the right direction. Very 
few salesmen can do their very best and be on duty 65 to 
80 hours a week. The tendency toward early closing is 
increasing, and progressive merchants will do well to push 
along the movement for weekly half holidays and shorter 
hours for all. 

Education of salespeople. —Finally, there is the education 
of the salespeople to be considered. In these days when 
business pressure is great, we are likely to forget that the 
salesman behind the counter, especially the young man or 
woman, has neither the outlook that will allow him to adopt 
the best means to progress in his work, nor the opportunity 


275 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


to do so. Many of the best merchants agree that any store 
system is incomplete unless provision is made for the train¬ 
ing of the employes. The business manager owes it to his 
employes to teach them something of the broader aspects of 
the business and to give them a chance to grow in it. Mer¬ 
chants often complain that salespeople do not seem to be 
able to describe goods or to give the proper assistance to 
customers. The merchant should not forget that his views 
and methods of selling are the results of years of experience 
and of a broad outlook on business life, neither of which 
the average salesman has. 

The buyer as a teacher. —Buyers bring in splendid assort¬ 
ments of goods which will, in their estimation, sell well; 
then sometimes salesmen fail tc sell these goods. The 
reason often is that the buyer has seen the goods demon¬ 
strated by expert salesmen representing the manufacturers; 
he has seen the goods in the best possible light; and he has 
heard the most telling points about them; while the sales¬ 
man behind the counter has been at home and has heard 
nothing and seen nothing of the goods before they were 
placed in stock. This condition can be remedied by making 
it a definite part of the buyer’s work to instruct the sales¬ 
people carefully in the qualities of the goods they are to sell. 
It rests with the buyer to inspire the salespeople of his de¬ 
partment so that they may see the beauty, the value, and 
the usefulness of every article as he sees them. In other 
words, the buyer should sell the goods to the salespeople 
before the salespeople can be expected to sell the goods to 
the customer. 

Store conferences. —In the teaching of general store man¬ 
agement and selling methods, a great deal of good can be 
done by the holding of frequent conferences or meetings 
among the salespeople at which topics of interest to the sales¬ 
people can be brought up for discussion. At these meetings 
all sides could be represented and heard. Classes in sales- 

276 


STORE, SALESPEOPLE AND PUBLIC 


manship are of a great value. The store rule book could 
be made a textbook of great helpfulness to salespeople if 
properly written and its study emphasized. When buyers 
make their trips to the market, they sometimes pick up a 
number of valuable ideas for the store. Each buying trip 
should be of educational value. Whenever possible, the 
store should send assistant buyers and salesmen along with 
the buyer so that they may also gain some of the help that 
comes to every man that travels with his eyes open. These 
trips could be made of value, not only to the salesmen 
who take them, but also to the rest of the salesmen, by re¬ 
quiring the ones who have taken the trip to make a report 
to the entire group. Educational trips could be offered to 
the salespeople as a form of premium for efficient service. 
They should be a means of increasing results in any retail 
store. 

The trade papers. — There is another means of education 
for salespeople, which should not be neglected, and which 
has grown in importance with .every year. We refer to 
the trade papers and magazines and the books written 
on business subjects. There is now no general retail busi¬ 
ness without its trade papers. These vary in quality and 
usefulness to the store employes, but, on the whole, they 
present the facts and suggestions which no good progressive 
salesman can afford to be without. That some of the 
material in these trade papers is addressed to the managers 
and higher officials of the store will not do the salesman 
a bit of harm; for it is the salesman’s failure to understand 
the problems of the man up above that is often the reason 
for his being inefficient. Modern business is moving swiftly 
and there are conditions which must be grappled with almost 
at the moment that they appear, or failure will result. There 
is nothing so well fitted and so able to furnish knowledge 
of these things as the trade papers. Every store should be 
a subscriber to the papers that deal with its special needs, 


277 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 


and every retail salesman should be a constant reader of as 
many of these trade papers as possible. 

Relations of merchant to society.— The store manager 
has a certain duty not only to his customers but also to so¬ 
ciety as a whole. The store is a social institution. It sup¬ 
plies the people with their daily needs. The store that 
serves the people best succeeds the best. Unjust and un¬ 
social practices in business in the past have made it neces¬ 
sary that there should be certain rules with regard to the 
conduct of business. So we have a law of sales, a law of 
contracts, a law of bankruptcy, laws of measures and 
weights, pure food laws, etc. The tendency seems to be for 
these rules concerning business to increase in number. The 
merchant should recognize the tendency and stand for it 
rather than against it. The public is not blind. Good-will 
is the result of good service to the public. It is a notable 
fact that “pure food law” stores, well advertised as such, 
everywhere in this country are meeting with success. Pure 
food, pure water, pure air, and cleanliness form the central 
ideas in a rapidly growing social ideal. The grocer who 
is a little ahead of the absolute requirements of the law in 
supplying his people with what they consider best, succeeds 
the best in the long run. It is not unlikely that we shall have 
“pure fur laws,” “pure silk laws,” and “pure wool laws” in 
the future. There is a growing desire among the people 
to know what they are eating, wearing, or using, what it 
is made of, how it is made, and its essential qualities. The 
day of imitation has not yet passed, by any means, nor is it 
likely that it will pass. But there is certainly an increasing 
number of people who prefer to buy from a firm that sells 
silk and cotton mixed foulard for what it is, rather than the 
same thing under the name of pure silk. If furniture is 
veneered, they want to know it. If woolen goods are not all 
wool, they want to know that. If oleomargarine is colored, 
they want to know that. There may not always be quite so 

278 


STORE, SALESPEOPLE AND PUBLIC 


much profit in selling goods under this policy as there may 
be in selling imitations that deceive the public. But busi¬ 
ness in the long run (and after all, the “long run” is the 
only thing that counts) must give full value to the public. 

The cost of living is undoubtedly increasing. Bradstreet’s 
commercial agency reports that the average increase on all 
articles used by the ultimate consumer during the twelve 
months ending May i, 1912, was something over ten per 
cent. For the last fifteen or twenty years, there has been 
a constant upward tendency in prices. The end of it is not 
yet in sight. This increase in the cost of living is going to 
hurt, and does hurt, the merchants as much as it hurts any¬ 
one else. Unjustly, merchants receive some share of the 
public blame for this increase. The merchant would serve 
the public, even better than he is doing, by taking a leading 
position in showing the public how to fight this increase in 
the cost of living. There are many ways in which most 
merchants could show the people how to save their money, 
how to make their money go further, and how to buy to 
the best advantage. These things would be really beneficial 
and would in no way hurt the retail business. 

For example, a plumbing house in one of the large cities 
makes it a point to show customers how to do certain things 
themselves, like making small repairs, replacing worn parts, 
and so on, and thereby save the expense of having a plumber 
come to their houses to do the work. The same principle 
is applied by other kinds of dealers. But some merchants 
might say, “Why, this would mean cutting down our own 
business!” In most cases this would not really be the re¬ 
sult. Plumbing and painting jobs which are done by the 
individuals assisted by the advice of the dealers would prob¬ 
ably not be done at all if the expense of getting a skilled 
workman were added to the cost. The work of the mer¬ 
chant in these cases is something like that of the physician. 
A good physician, even though he draws his fees only for 


279 


RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT 

his services during the time his patients are ill, does his level 
best to get them well as soon as possible. It should not be 
true of retail merchants that they seek to continue business 
practices that are an unnecessary expense to the public. 

The retail merchant can afford to be frank with the pub¬ 
lic. If he is doing a square business, no harm can come from 
his letting people know just what the conditions are under 
which he is working. To take a single example: There is no 
other business man who gets so many requests for donations 
as a retail merchant. He gets a great many more requests 
than any private individual. In fact, if he were to pay do¬ 
nations out of his own pocket, they would soon put him 
out of business. So he usually charges the donations to the 
expenses of the business. The public does not appar¬ 
ently understand that in doing so he simply turns the ex¬ 
pense over to the public. It would do no harm for the 
public to know that donations made by the merchant must 
be made by the business rather than by the person. It would 
be fairer and more economical to have the public pay the 
items directly than to put the expense of collection and dis¬ 
tribution upon retail merchants; yet this will never be un¬ 
derstood unless merchants themselves educate the public. 
































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